Ml 




Class I 

Book 



PRESENTED BY* 



Portland Prairie 

IN 

PRESENT TIMES 



PORTLAND PRAIRIE 
PRE SEISTT TIMES 



IXCLUDINO 

60MK rHlKTY DESCIUPriVE FA KM SKETCHES 

AND 

FAMILY RECOIlhS 




LAKIMORK, N. P. 

PRINTED BY H. V- ABNOLT> 
1919 






PuBLisHBB'g Booklet No. 22. 

PRINTED FOR PORTLAND PRAIRIE RESIDfeNTg, 

THEIR 

SONS AND DAUGHTERS. 



PREFACE 

In 1911 the pabliiber of this pamphlet iuved * b*«klet of 
lio pa^es entitled **01d Times on Portland Prairie." Most 
of the month of Deeember of the previous year was spent in 
the conamunity and this enabled us to gather quite a fund of 
information concerning settlement and later tinar^, though 
much of the work was derived from memory owing to a long 
residence there, beginning with the year 1864. In a general 
sense the present work supplements the earlier one. Having 
again upeot most of what chanced to he a mild winter, and 
the early spring, in the community, it may be said that the 
fact hai rendered this work possible. 

It ha3 often been the case that an author will make some 
use of his preface in pointing out what he considers to be the 
defects of his work. Parts of this work weie written out be- 
fore leaving the community, but not very closely followed 
when the copy cime to be put tn type, since we are accustomed 
to put whole pages in type without using any written copy ex- 
cept lookihi; over some nofes for reference — provided the 
pans being set «p are not actually quoted matter. Now the 
farm sketches were not written out before our return, bwl 
remained in note- book form. Hence certain details, largely 
of a personal nature, will occarircslly 1 e fcund lacking in 
some sketches hut present in otlTers. Had the sketches also 
been put in writing the absence of the^e details might hav« 
been noticed and tn some measure supplied. But, on tb« 
whole, the present w>ik will be frmnd to contain a larye fuixl 
of informatirn^rncerning Pot ilacd Prairie farn^^j, so far •8 
the sketchs po, ai c? > fyrrd what i» tuuf 1 ir a county history. 

Details involving Agures, such as the dimensions of fann 
bouses anrf barn«, depth of drilled wells, etc., arfe aceordittfT 
to the statements of owners of farm properties. In printing 
this work parts that are of a special character have beett pn^ 
in a smaller sisod If jaetbato that commonly use<l. 
November i, 1919- 



CONTENTS 

A i'UuQeat li^arlj Condi tioon S^ 

AH Intermediate S')age 31 

fu FrefeDt Timefl 8£l 

€putitry View From the ftidge 54 

Some of ihe Prairie Farntt 6^ 

'. 

Kobelle Brothers, 6i— The Haar Farm, 64 -Andrew O. 
Myrte, 66— Henry Schroeder, 67— Herbert L. Lapham, 68- 
Severt Holter, 7o~Tbc Watson Farm, 71 — WiUiaiB Wie- 
grcfe, 78— Frank Thies, 80-T-Wiebke Farm, S2 — Henry Haar, 
/^5— Alfred Albee, 87— Alfred Deters, 89— Edwin Shumway^ 
#0— W. E. McNelly, 92— Otto H. Freocbte, 96. 

Albert Bunge, 98— Carl Hanson, 100- William F. D«ters« 
lot— The Lapham Farm, 105. 

Herman Schoh, 107 — William Bramme, 109 — Christ©^ 
pher Stigen, til — Geo, H. Meyer, 112— GostaT Meitrodt, 
iT4— Bernhard Schoh, 116 — Theodore Tfiiele, il7--Ott^> 
t>eters, 119- - August Wiegrefe, 120. 

Scbool HouneH nnd (Church |21 

FortUiid I'rairle Necrology Since 1900 13^ 



Portland Prairie 

IN 

PRESENT TIMES 



I. 

BY WAY OF C0NTRA8T~A GLANCE AT 
OLD-TIMR CONDITIONS 

THERE is a tract of country in the southern 
part of Houston County. Minn., which, since 
settlement times has been called Portland Prairie. 
It is not comprised in any single township, but is 
bisected north and south by the line separating 
Wilmington and Winnebago townships and it also 
has a limited extension across the state line into 
Iowa. The country surrounding most of this tract 
is gorged out by valleys, locally called ravines, 
with their intervening broad-topped ridges. Each 
large ravine sends off branch ravines which are apt 
to be narrower and- steeper than the main one. 
The ravines are occupied by dry runs, except that 
these may for brief intervals become raging tor- 
rents in times of rapidly melting snow or after a 
heavy summer thunder shower. The ravines are 
drainage ways leading from rolling prairie tracts 
to some water course, usually a creek valley. 



b PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

The tops of the ridgea -between the ravines tor 
gether with the swells of the prairie are on about 
the same level and approximate 1150 feet above 
the sea. Were all of the creek valleys and ravines 
filled up to a common level this part of the county- 
would be essentially a plain, or one but slightly 
uneven, with the exception of the Spring Grove 
and Wilmington system of upland ridges, approx- 
imately 100 to 175 feet higher than the tracts of 
prairie land that spread outward from about their 



Portland Praarie is four miles or more in length 
from north to south and southeast, and about 1} 
i^ule in breadth, its ridge-and-ravine borders being 
sojnewhat irregular. Its surface is what is called 
roJiijig, consisting of broad swells of ground which 
dip more or less gently into synclines or hollows 
which are continuous drainage lines leading down 
into the larger ravines or their branches. The 
prairie has something of an axis or drainage divide, 
extending from near the east end of the Wilming- 
ton ridge to the vicinity of Eitzen, in a southeast 
direction. From this divide drainage waters flow 
off in nearly opposite directions to the Winnebago 
creek, Waterloo creek or the Upper Iowa river. 
The branchlets of the ravines lessen in dtpth until 
they fade out at the prairie axis mentioned. 

The prairie soil is of a kind called loess loam and 
is underlaid at a depth of a foot or two by yellow 
clay which at no great depth grades into a mixture 
of clay and decayed limestone rubble, beneath 



A GLANCE AT EARLY CONDITIONS 7 

which comes the more firm bedrock. The swelling 
rolls of the prairie surface were found by the first 
settlers to be quite generally treeless, but the 
sections round about characterized by ridge-and- 
ravine features was in part timbered or covered 
with brush and scrub oak with more or less open 
spaces on the ridge-tops that were grass coyered. 
The soil on these broad ridge-tops, though good, 
was not so deeply spread as over the prairie tracts. 
On the south sides of the bluffs, where these steep 
elopes received the direct rays of the sun in winter, 
they were usually bare of trees where the ravines 
were of considerable breadth. 

Portland Prairie began to be occupied by its first 
contingent of settlers during the first half of the 
decade of the fifties. They did not come in colony 
form so as to spread over a considerable area and 
establish something of a community in a single 
year, but dropped in singly, or by a few small 
families at a time in different years. Usually the 
men who purchased land were young and where 
married, had only one or two small children. First 
a few settlers began occupying lands on the Iowa 
side of the state line in 1851 and 1852. In the 
latter year the state line had begun to be run from 
the Mississippi river westward, and marked at the 
township corners by setting up large oak posts. 
This was soon followed by the government survey 
of Houston County and by the year 1854 a land 
office was opened at Brownsville at which settlers 



8 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TlMx^u 

could purcha«eland at $1.25 per acre, which was 
the method of disposing: of government lands prior 
to the Civil war. The settlers bought land accord- 
ing to their means, a quarter section or more or 
it might be only an eighty. Some who possessed 
the means bought up considerable tracts of land 
to sell at a profit to later comers. 

About 1853 three or four Irishmen crossed the 
state line and located in the south part of Wilming- 
ton township, but they did not remain long ere 
they sold their claim rights to others and sought 
locations elsewhere. By the years 1854 to 1856 
a number of settlers came from Rhode Island, 
Massachusetts and Maine, and either entered 
land where still vacant or purchased it of the land 
speculators. Some located on school section 36. 
A number of these settlers having come from 
Burrillville, R. I., the pioneer community was 
spoken of in the fifties as the "Rhode Island Set- 
tlement." For some years the community devel- 
oped slowly in breaking the open prairie land and 
fencing farms wholly or in part, with split rails. 
Meantime, while a living was m^ide on the farms, 
the people bettered themselves mainly in such rise 
in the value of their land as had ensued, which, in 
the late fifties, amounted to hardly more than a 
thousand dollars for a good quarter-section. 

Th^ main object of this sketch is to depict con-^ 
ditions as these existed in the prairie community 
after the pioneer stage had passed, and so remain- 



A GLANCE AT EAELY CONDITIONS 9 

ed afterwards for quite a number of years. The 
conditions to be described here are particularly in* 
serted in this work for the sake of contrast with 
the more prosperous and improved aspect of the 
prairie farms in present times and after the elapse 
of between fifty aud sixty years. No hard and 
fast time limit is intended, but, to give an ap- 
proximate date within those years, we have in 
mind the close of the Civil war in 1865, since about 
that time and a little later a few changes began to 
ensue in the community, though changes of a 
minor character had been taking place all along, 
since the general status of no large community 
can remain wholly stationary from year to year. 

First as to the houses in which the people lived. 
Usually they were moderate sized framed build- 
ings a story and a half high, sometimes with rear 
shed-roofed additions of later date, it might be, 
than the body of the house itself. The present 
generation is not lacking visible specimens of them 
among the outbuildings on some of the farms, 
their additions gone and what was their body part 
now used to store things in, or in some cases for a 
work-shop, and generally moved to one side. 

A few dwellings were mere cabins with one or 
two small rooms below and a low loft above. They 
were built of scantlings and unplained boards, the 
latter nailed to the frame vertically and the cracks 
battened over. Inside, the boards were papered 
oyer, it might be with old newspapers. A hole was 
dug under the cabin for a cellar, reached by a trap 



iO PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PflESEWT TIMES 

door in some part of the floor. The lumber to 
build both the houses and the cabins was teamed 
from Lansing, Iowa, then the nearest river point, 
the journey being more apt to be made with oxen 
than with horses. 

Around the borders of the prairie where timber 
was near, the log house was not uncommon. In 
dimensions they were not over 20 by 14 feet, but 
usually of less size than that. Sawed lumber was 
used for ground and loft floors and for the roof. 
The logs were sometimes partly hewn. Small 
window sash were set in spaces in the end walls 
and the home-mad« door opened to the weather. 
The cellars wer^ the same as with the cabins. The 
stove pipe tor a chimney went with the cabins, nor 
were all of the framed houses in the community 
provided with brick chimneys. 

The furniture in the farm dwellings generally 
was of a very common kind. The people had box- 
,ed up and shipped from the East by freight the 
things most needed or prized, particularly blankets, 
quilfts and clothing, and common furniture could 
be purchased at Lansing. Living in restricted 
quarters with no spare rooms, display was out of 
question. Cupboards were more common than 
pan try s, though some such space might be provid- 
ed partly beneath a stairway. A common cook 
stove was essential, and this was usually the only 
one in the house. There was scarcely a musical 
instrument in the community, though some fam- 
ilies might possess an accordion or a fiddle. 



A GLANCE AT EARLY CONDTTIONS 11 

In the time of the Civil war there were hardly 
any framed barns in the entire community and the 
few that had been built were small ones. In gen- 
eral, the farmers constructed what were called 
"straw barns," the frames of which were large 
crotches set in the ground, poles and fence rails, 
with a large amount of wheat straw run upon and 
around them during threshing time. The frames 
might last a long time, but the straw had to be re- 
newed each year. The ground, littered with straw, 
formed their floors. For horses, mangers and 
stalls were constructed in one end. Hog barns and 
the cattle sheds were of the same sort, usually 
combined. On the C. F. Albee place the sides of a 
iong tarn were of logs, but otherwise covered like 
those just mentioned. These structures were fair- 
ly comfortable for the limited amount of stock 
then kept on the farms, though they were mere 
makeshifts for more durable buildings. It is a far 
reach from them to the large gambrel-roofed red 
barns in the same community to-day. 

Although a wheat-raising section, there were 
but few granaries at the time specified in the whole 
community. Makeshifts had to be resorted to, 
such as building bins of fence rails, lining them 
with straw and heaping up a covering of straw 
over them. The wheat had to be cleaned in a fan- 
ning mill and sacked up to transport it to market 
(Lanoing) and this was done in a wagon body plac- 
ed on the ground beside the bin. Corn cribs were 
nlpu made in the same way without the lining. 



12 PORTLAND PRXIRiE IK PRESENT TIMES 

Here agrain a contrast may be drawn between 
the paucity of buildings on the farms in those days 
and the half dozen to eight or ten outbuildings, 
including the barns, on the same places in present 
times. One of the inconveniences of those times 
was a lack of sufficient water, both for stock and 
household uses. Drilled wells and windmills then 
lay y«ars in the future. In some measure this 
lack was obviated by scooping out pondholes in 
syncline hollows on the farms and also allowing 
the cattle to range down the ravines where springs 
then existed farther up them than any springs 
exist now. At favorable places on some of the 
farms surface wells, six or eight feet deep, fur- 
nished some water which had to be hauled to the 
farm premises in barrels. But more than this, 
every dwelling was supposed to have its cistern, 
dug down into the clay subsoil and cemented so as 
hold rain water. At times in dry seasons there 
was also some hauling of water from the springs 
down the larger ravines. These springs have long 
since disappeared owing to the clearing and cultiva- 
tion of the adjacent ridge tops. 

A considerable number of hogs were raised in 
the community, but they were of the common 
western breeds of that time. Nor were the cattle 
different. No one then had any large amount of 
young stock growing up on their farms. In sum- 
mer and fall the cattle had the free range of the 
ravines and ridge tops for pasturage, these lands 
then being neither fenced or occupied. 



A GLANCE AT axftf^Y CONDITIONS 15 

The principal crops raised on the farmi were 
wheat, corn, oats and potatoes. The corn wai 
mainly for the hogs, the oati for horses aid th« 
potatoes for home use. Two or three patents of 
reapers were in use, but they did not bind the 
grain. This had to be done by hand, four or five 
men keeping up their ''stations" around the field. 
The ^raiti was generally stacked near the barn- 
yards. Harvest, and threshing with horse-power 
machines, involved considerable changing of work 
among neighbors, though in harvest some extra 
help was often hired. 

As late as 1865 wheat was being sown by hand, 
but the Van Brunt broad-cast seeder appeared on 
the prairie farms not long afterwards. The corn 
was generally planted on fall plowed land, culti- 
vated in the summer and in the fall cut and shock- 
ed ten or twelve hilh square to the shock. Some 
husking was done in the field from the shock, but 
largely it was hauled from the field in winter and 
used as needed. 

At the date mentioned the prairie had been 
fairly well settled, at least from the year 1856, but 
as an agricultural community it had made but 
little progress beyond the pioneer stage. Not all 
the land on some of the farms so late as the close 
of the Civil war, and here is meant parcels of the 
original prairie land, had been brought under the 
plow. Some of it had been kept for hay owing to 
a lack of seeded ground. The quarter-section next 
north of the Geo. L. Watson farm had not been 



i4 PORTLAND IPRA'PRWC m SPWE^ENT 'TRtfES 

touched by the plow. The quarter was then own- 
ed by parties who did not reside upon it. What 
are now the Wiebke and Frank Thies farms also 
awaited breaking and occupation, so far as any 
one living on these places was concerned. Much 
of the Watson and the Wiegrefe place adjoining, 
still grew the original prairie grass and also some 
hazel brush and, small poplar groves besides. (This 
variety of tree has mainly disappeared and been 
replaced by tall, thick tracts of red oak timber.) 
The main road thru th« Wiegi«fe place then kept 
on southward up a gentle rise of ground on the 
Thies farm, and swinging around when near the 
fl. Haar farm to a road on the township line, it 
intersected it at the point where a road now starts 
^own the Wiebke ravine. Farther south on the 
prairie, the farms were mainly eighty and forty 
acre tracts and had been more generally enclosed 
with rail fences and brought under cultivation. 

There was no railroad nearer than North La 
Crosse, then the terminal of a line from Milwau- 
kee, and young children were growing up in the 
community who either had never seen anything 
pertaining to a railroad or, where brought to the 
prairie in infancy, remembered nothing about one. 
There was a mail route between Brownsville and 
Dorchester which brought mail to the community 
once a week. The mail usually consisted of letters, 
Chicago, St. Paul and other weeklies and a few 
monthly magazines. Daily papers formed no part 
of :the contents of the mail bag^ but in those tim^ 



A GLANCE AT EAULY COWDTnOl^ lb 

the offices of the city dailies also issued excellent 
weeklies designed largely for country circulation, 
and these found their many readers in communities 
such as Portland Prairie, isolated from the outside 
world. The prairie was a charge on the Caledonia 
Circuit of the Methodist Church and once every 
other Sunday the minister assigned to the circuit 
drove down and held services in a school house that 
stood close east of the one in the McNelly district. 
A Sunday school was also maintained, at least dur- 
iifig th« warm months of each year. 

There were about thirty American families in the 
community, without including those of the * 'Ever- 
ett neighborhood" across the Iowa state line and 
on the Lansing road south of where Eitzen was 
started a few years later. The people had little 
occasion to assemble week days except for Fourth 
of July picnics in some shady grove. They got 
their milling done at Dorchester where a fair sized 
mill had facilities to grind flour, feed and corn 
meal. Trading at a store was done there, also at 
Lansing and Caledonia. In general the residents 
of the prairie possessed no buggies or light rigs, 
but went about in the common farm wagon. Yet 
it may be added that every family lived in the 
hope of sometime having more conveniences and 
better surroundings. 

Some mention of the families of those times will 
next be made, beginning on the north side of the 
Wilmington ridge and following the principal 
roads in the community. 



16 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TI»?»jS 



In coming south on the main or Caledonia road, two f«rB» 
residences were to be seen in the vicinity of ihe WilmingtOB 
ridge or its spurs. One was a quarter of a mile o£E the road, 
under a northwardly projecting and wooded spur of the ridge, 
a moderate sized framed house, the home of Knut Anderson, 
a well-to-do Norwegian farmer who probablj settled there ia 
the late fifties. He had considerable ridge land but not Terj 
i^uch of the prairie embayment in that vicinity, since eighty 
%cres in the midst of the embayment or re-entrant of the 
ridges, acquired later, then belonged to the next place east. 
Anderson had something of a family and his farm premises 
were where Edwin Robelle lives now. 

The other place was that of Harley P. Kelly whose house, 
built of small hewn logs, stood near that now owned by Mrs., 
L. Haar. Kelly came from Blackstone, Mass., about 1863 
and had a wife and two children. He had quite a large body 
pf land, all of the northeast quarter-section 23 and two forties 
adjoining it in Section 14. The south part of the farm extend- 
ed up to the lop of the ridge. At its fool in the south part of 
the embayment mentioned there existed a considerable body 
of timber, since in part cleared off, particularly at its east end. 
With all his land, Kelly was not a successful farmer, but held 
out until wheat raising failed in the late seventies. 

The next place on the road where there was any house was 
that now owned by H. L. Lapham. It was then owned to 
the extent of eighty acres by Edin B,all,oiji who built and came 
on th|| place ia 1863. It may be remarked here that between 
1^855 and 1865 several of the farms about the north end of the 
prairie were owned or had been by persons who neither built, 
cultivated or resided upon them. A(Ir. Ballou had a wife, two 
soits and two daughters, all grown up^ During part of the 
war the sons were absent from bosc^e L^ the Federal army and 



A GLANCE AT EARLY CONDITIOSK 17 

the oldest daughter, called Mrs. Martha Maxwell, appeared to 
have come to reside with her parents while her husband was 
also away in the army. 

The Watson quarter, the northeast section 34, was owned 
by Amos Arnold, grandfather of Geo. L. Watson. It had 
been in his possession since 1856, there having been two pre- 
vious owners. He came out from Connecticut in 1861 and 
had the local carpenters of the community build a framed 
house 34 by 16 feet on the place, which was not wholly finish- 
ed inside. The lumber was teamed from Lansing. Mr. A. 
came from the East with part of his family in June, 1864. 
Two elder sons, Horace and EUery C, had come previously, 
the first in 1856 and the other in 1861. In the summer of 
1864 a house of the cabin form, about 18 by 13 feet, and 
about twelve feet posted, was built for E. C. Arnold and 
family (wife and three young childern) on the east side of the 
farm and at the summit of the hill that slopes up from the 
deepest syncline on the place. At that time this hill side was 
largely covered with brush and trees. The south part of the 
farm contained three groves and some considerable tracts of 
ihazel brush now gone except the timber tract in the southeast 
corner, which is only a part of an extensive woodland domain 
about the corners of four differently owned farms. 

The next place south was that of Charles F. Wright who 
lived in a log house with his family, consisting of a wife and 
tiiree small children. Mr. Wright came on the place in 1863 
from Blackstone, Mass. His wife was a daughter of Corne- 
lius Metcalf Sr., at that time one of the farm owners of the 
community. The farm consisted of an eighty and what is 
now the west forty of F. Thies' farm. The log house stood 
amidst some large red oaks where the present house now stands 
and is thought to have been built by Amos Lapham, a brother 
j-of the late L. L. Lapham, sometime in the later fifties. 



18 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 



The next occapied place on the main road was that (»f 
Charles K. Albee, father of Alfred Albee and Mrs. Alke 
(Albec) Haar. He entered from the government in 1S54 Of 
'55 theXoftheasl quarter-section 25, and also a forty adjoining 
on the eas^ across both the road and township line. He did 
not, however, occupy the place until the year 1858, in the 
^ Hieantijae living on a rented place across the Iowa state line. 
He intended to move on to what is now a part of the W. E« 
Mc Nelly farm, in 1858, but the Cass family arrived from the 
East that spring and occupied a honse then on that place until 
they could build on their own, partly adjoining the Albee 
quarter on the east. C. F. Albee had some white oak logs 
that he intended to split into fence rails. He took some ef 
the best of them to a sawmill on Waterloo creek, near the 
mouth of Duck Creek ravine, and had them sawn into house 
lumber. Mr. Albee had been a carpenter and builder at 
the East and with the help of others soon had a house on his 
farm in which the family lived until the fall of 1875. The 
old house is still on the place used as one of the outbaildings. 
A log stable was also built on the forty across the road east of 
the house. 

Mr. Albee was from Burrillville, R. I., and came west 
in 1854. Mrs. Albee was sister to James and Duty Paine, 
also to Mrs. J. Sbumway, to be mentioned later in these farm 
sketches. There were six children in the family born in the 
years 1848 to 1S64. Edgar, the eldest, died June 4, 1866. 
Mrs. Alice Haar was third and Alfred Albee fifth of these six 
children. John Albee, a brother of Cbaries, and at one time 
local physician of the community, lived many years with the 
family, having came to the prairie in 1856. 

Across the township line road, in Winnebago, there were 
two framed houses built on land that William Cass Sr., had 
bought. The farm at first consisted of 160 acres on the west 
side of Section 30, minus, perhaps^ twenty acres out of this 



A GLANCE AT EARLY CONDmONS 19 

aiuount that had been deeded previously to Mrs. C. F. Wright* 
The land south ot C. F. Albee's forty to the Lansing road, as 
it «ra3 called, and for a half mile east of the township line, 
had been entered by David Salisbury and Asa Shermaa who 
were brothers*in*law and resident land speculators in the 
pioneer community of the fifties. Mr. Cass built where the 
Alfred Deters preaii&es are now. The Cass family consisted 
of himself and wife, two daughters and two sons, the youngest, 
William Jr., having been born in 1853. The family came 
west from Blackstone, Mass. 

The other house on what had been the original farm was 
bmlt in 1S64 by David P. Temple who had bought forty acres 
off from its north side. Mr. Temple was no farmer but sought 
civic offices instead. The house stood near the main road 
opposite the present Alfred Aibee place, and was occupied by 
dvx Eddy family, man, wife and two sons, the oldest of whoa 
watered the army during the summer of 1864. 

The land where the road comes to corners had been bought 
of Asa Shermaa by Cornelius Metcalf Sr. Sherman had built 
a framed house on the place which stood about a half mile 
east from the township line road and some distance back from 
the Lansing road. The farm was an eighty extending east and 
west, having the main traveled road thru the community bor> 
dering it on the west and south. Mr. Metcalf was born ia 
1806 and his wife had died before himself and family, two 
sons and two daughters, came west. The place was carried on 
by Cornelius Jr. and his brother David. The former married 
in i860 a daughter of Leonard Albee and had two small child- 
ren at the time to which these sketches refer. The daughters 
of Mr. Metcalf were Mrs. Wright and Mrs. R. E. Shumway. 
They were another of several families who had come west 
from Blackstone, Mass., which is located close on the Rhode 
Island border. 



20 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

A little to the east of the Metcalf place and on another 
eighty there was a neat looking white bouse that had been 
bailt by Asa Sherman in iS6o. Sherman's wife was a dau^h* 
ter of Edin Ballou, but she died Jaly 3, 1S62. Sometime the 
next year, Sherman went to Rhode Island and returning west 
with Mr. Wright, was missed from the beat one morning at 
Lansing. The supposition was that be fell ofi the boat in some 
way in the night and was drowned. At the time to which 
these sketches refer the place was owned by Christian Flessa. 

The only house on the Lansing road in Section 31, Winne- 
bago, was where Otto Fruchte resides. It had been owned by 
Henry Kohlmeier, who also was a missing man. He had 
been in the Civil war, but at its close was sick in an army 
ho^oital for some time. After leaving the hospital he myster- 
iously disappeared. The place then passed to Henry Flegg, 
an adopted son, also a Civil wir s:)ldiir, who toak the family 
name Kohlmieir. 

There were then a few Aoiericaa families in the vicinity of 
where the village of Eitzen was yet to be. A Williams* fam- 
ily lived in a log house on the corner where a stone-built store 
stands now. Samuel Evans lived s .)uth of the road corners a 
short distance; Joseph MeWin at the next road corners east 
and also a Calkins family west of the village site. There were 
also (ierman families in that section, since in 1864 they built 
a church south of tiis roid coniirs wh3r2 a larger church ed- 
i£ce has been erected in recent years. 

At the McNilly school house the main road diverges cast 
and west. That part leading east and souih was commonly 
called the Laasing road, for people turned that way in making 
their trips to Lansing. The opposite way west for about forty 

• In a pamphlet called "Old Times on Portland Prairie,*' 
printed in 1911. this Williams family is spoken of (p 20) as that of 
Spafford Williams who yr&f a former hotel keeper at Caledonia. 
''^is was an error, the two Williams families being unre],ated> 



A GLANCE AT EARLY CONDITIONS 21 

Todi and then south thru the east part of Section 36, Wil- 
mingtoD, was called the road to Dorchester and was the aain 
route followed in taking grists to the mill, though a less easy 
road led down the Oack Creek ravine to the sane place. 
There were two cross roads connecting the two, the tirtt along 
the north line of Section 36 which was then and still is, a 
west continuation of a road from the last corners mentioned; 
the other was the east and west road thru the middle of Sec- 
tion 36. 

Dr. Alexander Batcheller, who, in the old days was the 
local physician of the community, came west with his family 
from Burrillville, R. L, in October, 1854, and entered the 
south half of Section 25, Wilmington. This large tract, com- 
prising 320 acres, now contains the W. K. McNelly quarter, 
most of August Wiegrefe's farm, and part of that of Otto 
Diiers. Th? tract did not remain lorji» undivided; in fact, in 
1864 it had tive owners — the doctor, John O. Cook, William 
W. Kverett, Leonard Albee and James Vreeland. The place 
had been split up into forties and eighties. The doctor built 
a small house where the McNelly residence is now. There 
were seven children in the family, sons and daughters, bom 
1836 to 1858. In the late fifties the doctor transferred the 
forty acres adjoining the main or township line road to a man 
named Tidemon Aldrich and built another house on an eighty 
further west, part of the original tract. In 1862 the doctor 
sold this place to a man named McDan aud moved with his 
family to New Jersey for about two years. In 1S64 the fam- 
ily were back in the community living, as before, in the first 
house just west of a school house at the corners, then called 
the Batcheller school house. Aldrich had now moved away. 

The most eastern eighty of the half section that Dr. Batch* 
cller entered had been split lengthwise into forties a half mile 
long and forty rods wide. The forty next west was owned by 
John G. Cook, who was a cooper by trade. Himself and wife 



22 PORTLAND PRAIHfE IN PRESENT nWBB 

lived io a itatM house oear the section line croM road. He 
skHo had i cooper's shop nemr the house. 

The Aezt eighty west wm now owned by William Walker 
&f erett, who at this time had seven children in his family, the 
two oldest by a first wife. In 1864 he was drafted into the 
army as was also the ca«e with several other men of the prai* 
rl«, and was killed at the battle of Nashville on Dec. t6lh of 
the same year. Afterwards the farm became commonly 
known as the "Widow Everett place." The old house that Dr. 
Batcheller built on this eighty was still standing well back 
(rom the road, in the spring of 1919. 

The eighty oett west of that last mentioned had bees toM 
about 1858 fo Leonard Albee who was a consin to Charles F. 
Albee. He had two living children, grown up, a son and a 
daughter; the Utter, as has been stated, married Coraelim 
Metcalf Jr. The son, named Wesley, born in 184a, carried 
on the place until hit death, July 5, 1868. Mr. Albee was 
born in Massachusetts io 18 to and his wife in Connecticnt in 
1812. The family came west from BurritlviUe« R. I. The 
body part of the old house in which they lived, is still standing 
on the place a few rods east of August Wiegrrfe's residence, 
who IS the present owner. 

Next in regard to families who were living in school section 
36. This section was divided up into small farms as thofolf 
as it very well could be. The Dorchester road, instead of 
iollowing the township line south from the school house, waa 
placed forty rods further west so as to run south a m)It tbra 
the east part of the section. As the eighties in the eaat half 
of Section 36 extend east and west, this cut twenty acres from 
each one, not reckoning wiih the land taken by the rMkd» 
thereby leaving a strip of land about forty rods wide and a 
mile in length between the road and the township line. This 
Sitrip was owned by a German samed August Gubl and b^ 



A GLANCE AT BARLY O0KDITION8 23 

Jeremiah Shumwmj. A man named Nelson Smith built a 
hoase on the north part of the strip, but about 1864 he lold 
oat to Gahl and moved into Iowa. 

The ttrip and road redaced the farms bordering it west to 
sixty acre tracts. The one bordering on both roads was owned 
hj Duty Paine whose log house stood somewhere toward the 
west end of the farm, bat not as near to the section line cr«ii 
road as the present Schultz house on the same place. Paine't 
wife was a Nova Scotia woman and a few children were bora 
while he lived on tbe place. He was born in 1830 Mid wai 
living in recent years in Montana. 

The next tract south bordering on both the Dorchester and 
the center cross road of the section, was owned by James M, 
Paine. He lived in a small framed buuse close to the Der> 
Chester road and a short distance north of the cross road. 
He married, as a first wife, a sister of J. Shumway, by whom 
he had four children, all born on tbe place from 1855 to 1861. 
Mr. Paine was born in 1S35 and was living at Worthitigton» 
Minn., early in the present decade. 

The sixty acre tract next south of the cross road was owned 
by Henry Robinson, one of four brothers who had settled just 
across the state line. He built a house 00 the place in i86t 
where he resided with a sister until her death in 189^, and 
afterwards until he died in 19 13. ^ C I 

The next tract south was owned by Jorgen Guhl, who was a 
brother of August Guhl. We have no information coneerning 
the family relations of either of the Guhl brothers of that 
time. The eighty next west probably belonged to the Kobin. 
son farm. A man named Elisha Cook, cousin to John G., own- 
ed the forty next west of the Henry Robiosbn tract. He had a 
wife and several children at the time in mind. We think that 
the father of Geo. C. H. Meyer occupied the forty next west of 
Cook's place. The west side of the section is near the Duck 
Creek ravine and the tops of the bluf!s were then timbered. 



■^ 



24 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

John McNellj came «rest in 1855 and was liTing during the 
war period and for some time previoaslj} in a hoase of the 
cabin kind on an eighty next west of the Paine brothers farms. 
His cabin stood near the south end of the eighty not far from 
the center cross road of the section. His wife was sister to 
Jeremiah Shumway. He had at that time three children, one 
of whom was Wm. E. McNeily, born in 1857, and had also 
lost three ehildren, one of whom was a boy nine years of age. 

There was a framed house at the southern end the land 
strip mentioned, in the southeast corner of both the section 
andiownship, which was the farm home of Jeremiah Shumway. 
A part of his land was located on the Iowa side of the state 
lime. A few rods to the northwest of the house there stood a 
ioj^ cabin, the oldest habitation in the community on the 
Minnesota side of the state line. It had been built about 1853 
by a man named John Edger whom Mr. Shumway bought out. 
A roadway from the Dorchester road led by the house and 
cabin. Mrs. Shumway was a sister of the Paine brothers and 
also of Mrs. C. F. Albee. J. Shumway, C. F. Albee, Doty 
and James Paine, came west from Burrillville, R. I., in 1854 
and John McNelly and the two Cook families came the neat 
year from this same township, which is eight miles long by tive^ 
in width, located in the northwes>t corner of that small state. 
Rnfus E. Shumway, brother to Jeremiah, came west in 1856 
and after his marriage occupied the log cabin, which was the 
community postoflTice from 1863 to r866. Dunng the last 
year of the war both the Shumway brothers were absent from 
home in the army. While Rufus was in the army his wife, 
Hannah, attended to the mail. J. Shumway had five childre* 
4n his family at that time and Rufus two. J. Shumway was 
born in Oxford, Mass., in 1827 and is stiil liTing in Nebraska; 
R. f:. Shumway was born in 1833 and is still a resident of 
Por^tland Prairie. The fansily to which they belonged moved 
into 'Rhode Island about the year 1842. 



A OLAHCK AT EARLY CONDITiaKS 



At thettftte line the Dorchtiter road t«rnt westerly snd «p 
a gentle rise ol ground lor a quarter of a mile, then proceeds 
aoath again toward what is still called the Archie Creek ravine. 
(The creek was a small brook coming Irosa a spring). Just 
around the second turn of the road a widow woman of the 
familj name Kobinson, located with her four sons and two 
daughters^ in 185 1. Thej came from Columbia Coaatyt Wis.* 
tut earlier had lived in Pennsylvania. The children of the 
tamilj had been born from 1B39 to 184a and were aamad 
William, Henry, Anne, George, Esther and John. At the 
time of their settlement on the Iowa side of the line, Williaas 
only was old enough to make entry on government land. Is 
it9 time of the Civil war the original log house on the farm 
had given place to a neat framed house painted white and 
we ihmk there were other framed buildings on the premises. 
vv hen the Robinson's came there only an Indian trail from the 
towa to Root liver crossed Portland Prairie. 

Returuini* along the township line road to where this turns 
down a ravine to the Winnebago creek, the land thereaboQl 
was owned by several Norwegian settlers, tive of the name ol 
Hanson. There were five brothers of them altogether, who 
were commonly spoken of collectively as **ihe five brothers*' 
whose names in the order of their age were Iver, Frederick, 
James, Peter, and John. Frederick occupied a quarter-sectioa 
of land, the southwest Section 18, Winnebago, its west eighty 
being mainly j laixic land. The farm buildings were neat the 
road on an adjoining tract that belongs to the place, where 
the modern ones are. Peter Hanson lived in the north p9Jr% ©I 
Section 13, Wilmington, and another Norwegian farmer iani' 
ed Searns Nelson owned part of what is now Albert Baaga^t 
farm, his log cabin having stood on the same farm pr««ifea. 
At that period much of the north bah es of the tao sectioat 
mentioned largely comprised brush, poplar and oak tiasberi 
not having been cleared so much as in prcaent tiBsa. 



26 PORTLAND PRAIBFE IN PRESENT TIMES 

Immediately south ot the HansoD quarter-section and boT« 
during oa the road, was an eighty then owned by Hosea W. 
Ftase who came from Maine with his family in 185S. He 
bought the eighty of John Aibee, who could hardly have en> 
tered it as government land since he did not come west ntttil 
1856. The house on the place stood near the road and en the 
summit of a swell of ground between two rarines that cross 
this eighty, the north one being in part a prairie syacUne. 
There were some twenty acres of timber at the south end of 
thia eighty, part of the forest tract mentioned p. 17. Mn. 
Fease was a daughter of Josiah Everett, the patriarch of the 
"Everett neighborhood" whose birth year was 1797. There 
were four children in the Pease family, three daughters and 
one son, all born in Maine. 

Next south of the Pease eighty came the lOO acre farm of 
Levi L. Lapbam. He purchased it in 1856, hut did not coae 
to reside on the place until i860. In the meantime his brother, 
Amos Lapham, occupied the place, and likely built the small 
framed house on it which stood near the road to the northwest 
of the present brick residence on the farm. With the purchase 
twenty acres were included, which, according to land lines,, 
belonged to the Wiebke place. Probably the original owner 
possessed both places. The north part of the farm, sloping 
down toward what was then called the Peas« ravine, was well 
timbered, but this hillside woodland did not have in those 
times the vieorou* growth that it has now. Mr. and Mrs. 
Lapham, originally of Burrillville, R. I., and Dudley, Mass.,. 
respectively, were residing in i860 at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 
Mr. Lapham fitted up a team for a journey to the Pike's Peak 
gold mining region, but himself and wife drove to Portland 
Prairie to visit Amos before crossing the Plains. After their 
arrival they never left the farm again to reside elsewhere. 
Mr. Lapham was in the army in the last year of the war, a 
man named Isaac Gaull taking care of the place. At that 



A GLANCE AT EARLY CONDITIONS 2T 

time there were two siaall childrea in the family, Fraaces and 
Cora, both born on the farm. Mr. Lapham also owned an 
eighty which he had bought or entered, located next east of the 
Pease farm, bat at the time speciSed it was unfenced and 
mainly covered with brash and a scattering of small trees. 
Nor were there any fenced and occupied lands east of those 
that have been mentioned as bordering the township line and 
roads from Hanson's to what was then the Cass farm, these 
unoccupied lands, mostly of the ridge- and-ravine type, then 
constituting a free cattle range. 

In those days there were about the same number of occupied 
places over on the west or Duck Creek ravine road m there 
&re DOW, from the top of the Wilmington ridge down as far as 
tt»e cross road on the line of sections 25 and 36. The west 
road has been changed somewhat, the most marked alteration 
being that where it goes up to the top of the ridge. In the 
sixties there were no corners as now near Stigen's; instead the 
road continued north to the foot of the ridge and turned up 
along its side as may still be seen near Herman Schoh's resi- 
dence, who uses that part of it as a farm roadway up the hill. 
An unfenced road then occupied the summit of the ndge and 
passing ofi from it on its southeastern shoulder it intersected 
the Caledonia road near the school house. It can still be traced 
for about Bfteen rods up on the bluff west of the Watson 
residence, though not used since 1869. 

There was then no cultivation of the lop of the ridge until 
the farm of Arnold Stone was reached whose premises were 
where those of Arther Dierson are. Mr. Stone had as much as 
a hundred acres of land south of the ridge road and one or two 
forties north of it. His farm lay somewhat broken by the 
ridge and one of its spurs, these being partly wooded. The 
family were from the same Rhode Island township as others 
that have been mentioned, and came west in 1856, living in 



28 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

Winnebago township until i860. At the time to which these 
annals hare reference, Mr. and Mrs. Stone had seren childrea 
in their family, two sons and five daughters, horn in the years 
from 1846 to 1862. The Stone farm is now divided up iats 
smaller tracts owned by different persons of the vicinity. 

West and southwest of the former Stone farm was a quarter- 
section owned by James D, Emerson. He came with a sos 
and three daughters from Massachusets. They lived near tba 
foot of the wooded spur ridge where William Schroeder'i 
farm premises are. Emerson's quarter was largely ridge laad. 

What is now land belonging to Herman Schoh, William 
Bramme and we think also, the forty in the northwest corner 
of which the Haar residence is now located, was owned in 
Civil war time by a man named Benjamin Robbins. He lived 
la a log cabin a dozen or Bfteea rods south by east from the 
site of ihc Schoh residence. The cabin stood close to the road 
on its west side, which then crossed that part of the farm and, 
as mentioned, turned up the hill side north of it. What was 
unusual for the community in those days, Robbins had a 
granary with a basement part under tt and in the base of the 
short spur ridge up which the road goes now. Both the cabin 
and granary had probably been built by Silas Perry who had 
made the original entry on the land. In 1864 the farm was 
purchased by Joel S. Yeaton who came to the prairie that year 
from Maine. At that time he had a wife, one daughter and 
|:hree boys. During about five years residence on the farm} 
little was done by the new owner to alter the premises, etcept 
to add a lean-to on the cabin, though he was at considerable 
expense also in hauling from Lansing pine lumber for p«st aBd 
board fences on different parts of the rather large farm. 

Next south on the road came the farm of Alfred Ifarcy 
wliich consisted of two forties, one each on either side of the 
road. The house on the place was of the cabin form located 
on the south side of a then bare sandstone mound where the 



A GLANCB AT SARLY CONDITIONS 29 

btigea resideaae staads. Mrs. Marcy was a tUur •! Leaaard 
Albee, aad died io 1867. There wa» a creva up Mk aad 
daughter litiag ea the place priar to her death. 

The Geo. H. Mejer place was owned bj Heory and Fled 
Hannebuth. The farm premise* were where those of Mr. 
Mejer are, a quarter of a mile east of the road aad near the 
upper part of the Duck Creek ravine. Henry Hannebuth wat 
a CiTil war soldier, but we have no inf armation conceraing hia 
(amilj. The place comprised 120 acres. 

Next south of Marcy's west forty and part of the A. Stane 
farm, came an eighty extending east and west owned by Fred* , 
erick Meitrodt, who bought the place about 1861. In war, 
time himself and wife had two chlldrea, William aad Anftit, 
born in 1863 and 1864 respectively. Two twin brothers! wha 
were, born in 1868 were named Gnstav and Otto, the first of 
Whom now owns the old home place. 

Further »outh, and on both sides of the road a Norwegiaa 
tarmer named Eslen Olson oi^ced considerable land, sinco 
divided up.— The last occupied place on the road near the 
ravine was owned by James Vieelaud, being the most western 
eighty of the half section that Dr. Batcheller had entered aa 
government land (p. 21). Vreel&nd bad a wife and at leaat 
one small boy in his tamily, so far as remembered.— Over 
west from this place, Amos Lapham and wife had a farm. 

At the Vreeland (now Otto Deters) place the Duck Creek 
ravine deepens so as to expose ledge rock along its sides* The 
creek, if it stilt flows any water, is a small streamlet within 
the last mile of the ravine before it opens into the valley of 
Waterloo creek. 

Following is a list of the Civil war soldiers who served far 
longer or shorter periods in the Federal armies, and who either 
went from Portland Prairie or took up their residence there 
apt long after the close of the war. 



30 

28: PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 



Ellery C. Arnold, 5tb Minn. L. L. Lapham, 1st Minn. Arty, 

Edward L. Ballon, 6th Minn. Frederick Monk, I2th Iowa. 

Henry C. Ballon, loth Minn. August PottraU, 5th Minn. 

John Burmester, 5th Minn. John Robinson — Iowa CaY. 

Henry Eddy, iith Minn. Jeremiah Shumway, 5th Minn. 

Wm. W. Everett, 5th Minn. Kufus E. Shumway, 5th Minn. 

Henry Flegg, 8th Iowa Cav. Geo. T. Shumway, loth Minn* 

Amos Glanville, loth Minn. Wm. H, Stone, 6th Minn. 

Wm. H. Going, 4th Minn. Frederick Thies, 2d Minn. 
August Hannebuth, Ill's Regt. Oliver Wait, loth Minn. 

Henry Hannebuth, 5th Minn. Jasper Williams, Ind.Vol. CaT« 

Franklin Healy, loth Minn. Joseph Winkelman, loth Minn. 
Henry Koblmeier, 5th Iowa. 

There was also a soldier, name not remembered, who went 
with Henry Eddy in the summer of 1864 and presumably was 
in the same regiment. He had been working for Edin Ballon. 

There is a small soldier's stone in the Portland Prairie cem- 
etery that marks the grave of Wm. H. Stone, but it has no 
date. He died at the Arnold Stone place, January 31, 1869. 

Jasper Williams died at Fort Snelling, March 2«, 1864, An 
inscription on his gravestone in a cemetery at Caledonia reads 
'*Ind. Vol. Cav." which might mean either Indian or Indiana 
Volunteer Cavalry. 

In the spring of 1865 there ensued a re-emigration from the 
prairie to the extent of several families. Those who went at 
that time were Dr. Batcheller, John G. Cook, Duty Paine, 
James Paine, Marcius Eddy and Edin Ballou. They located 
in Plack Hawk and Grundy counties,^ Iowa. 



II. 

AN INTERMEDIATE STAGE 

PRESENT time conditions, or more broadly 
speaking, those that have been prevalent in 
the new century, were very srradually attained, 
having had something of a beginning in the last 
decade of the other century. But between the old 
time conditions of the prairie community describ* 
ed in previous pages, and the decade of the nine- 
ties, there ensued a rather long intermediate stage 
of which some note may be taken. 

There was some improvement in regard to resi- 
dences in the seventies, a few new and more roomy 
houses replacing old ones on some of the farms 
and additions were built on to others. The people 
also began to add some things to their belongings 
not possessed previously, such as buggies or oth<»r 
form of light vehicles to get around in instead of 
having to rely on the common farm wagon; this 
decade too was a time when some of the prairie 
people began getting musical instruments in the 
form of organs into their residences and something 
in the line of furniture not possessed before. 

Framed barns of a moderate size had now began 
to replace, in some instances, the straw barns 
that have been mentioned, and -more granaries 
were also built. The first attempts to introduce 
drilled wells on any of the prairie farms were made 
in 1873 and in the years next following during 
that decade. They were less than a hundred feet 



32 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

in depth and at first provided with common iron 
hand pumps. Next wooden windmills were used, 
placed on wooden-built towers of moderate height 
and to this equipment water tanks were added 
made of plank and housed over. It now becirae 
apparent that these wells were hardly of sufficient 
depth but that the windmills would, after running 
an hour, more or less, temporarily exhaust the 
supply of water standing in the drill-holes. It was 
true, however, that these early drilled wells were 
quite an advance upon the inconvenient methods 
of obtaining water experienced in earlier times. 

Beginning July 1, 1870, the community received 
mail twice a week instead of once as heretofore. 
The route was still between Brownsville and Dor- 
chester, but in 1872 a route was established from 
W^ukon to Caledonia which was maintained for 
several years during that decade. This cut off 
the part of the other route between the prairie and 
Dorchester. The prairie postoffice was at Rufua 
Shumway's place and the starting for Brownsville 
was made from there, J, Shumway providing the 
rig. This service took the best part of four days 
in the week even in the seasons when the days were 
long. Tuesdays and Fridayi the driver was on the 
road to Brownsville; six or seven hours of each of 
the succeeding days were occupied on the return 
trips. As in earlier times no city dailies reached 
the community. In later years the route was 
.changed so as to start from New Albin up the 
Winnebago Valley and around by Eitzen. 



AN INTERMEDIATE STAGE 



Down to the year 1878 it had been customary 
to slaughter th« hogs early in winter, dress them 
and pack them away to freeze in a granary or in 
a bin made of fence rails and straw. This was 
practicable, since no great number of hogi were 
then raised on any single prairie farm. It was 
thought that later along in each winter the market 
price for dressed hogs would be more favorable 
than in the early part of it. When marketed the 
pork was loaded into wagon bodies on bob ileds 
and teamed to Lansing, New Albin or Brownsville. 
The winter of 1877-8 was mild, open and muddy, 
that sort of weather including November. Here- 
tofore a freezing temperature could be counted 
upon from early in Deeember forward into March. 
Dressed hogs now had to be hurried to market on 
wheels irrespective of prices. The next season the 
prairie farmers began the system now in vogue, 
that of transporting them to market in racks fast- 
ened to wagon bodies and selling them live weight. 
The first year loads of hogs were taken to New 
Albin in that way, and the same fall G. M. Watson 
began shipping hogs to Chicago by car load Iota. 
In the fall of 1879 the Preston Branch was built 
thru Caledonia and the road immediately opened 
a hog market there convenient to Portland Prairie. 

The construction of the railroad, altho with a. 
three feet or narrow gauge track and correspond- 
ing rolling stock during the next 22 years, finally 
came to exert a potent influence on Caledonia and 
the surrounding country; in fact, the railroad at 



34 PORTLAND PRiRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

once began to modify conditions in the southern 
half of the county, and the influences it exerted 
increased gradually, more especially in Caledoaia 
itself. The first railroad built in the county was 
called the Southern Minnesota and the part of it 
within the county limits was constructed up the 
Root River valley in 1865 and 1866. This line was 
too far away to favor the south part of the eonnty 
to any extent. In 1871 the west side river line waf 
begun at Dubuque and during the next year was 
continued along the foot of the river bluffs to a 
connection near LaCrescent with another line that 
had been built south from St. Paul by another 
company. The new line from Dubuque to LaCres- 
qent was called the Chicago, Dubuque & Minnesota 
Railroad and it was that company that sevea years 
later constructed the narrow gauge as one of three 
branches of their line into the country back from 
the river. The building of the river road at once 
started New Albin upon a fine townsite previously 
called Ross' bench, and thus opened in the seventies 
a railroad market to which Portland Prairie farm- 
ers could cart loads of wheat, do some trading, 
and return home the san:e day Each trip made 
to Lansing or Brownsville had occupied two days, 
including hotel expenses. 

Co-incident with the grading and track laying of 
the narrow gauge railroad thru the county, some- 
thing else was engaging the serious attention of 
the farmers, particularly those living on the small 
sized farms. The wheat harvest in 1878 had been 



AN INTBRMEDIATE STAGE 35 

rather poor owing to hot weather before harvest 
which shriveled unmatured curnels; of the harvest 
of 1879 it was said that the grain was no better 
than chicken feed. The farmers of southeastern 
Minnesota and northeastern Iowa were confronted 
with a fact that some had anticipated by reason of 
experiences in the older states; that a time would 
come when owing to some climatic change or other 
cause Wheat raising would become uncertain in 
regard to securing a crop or might fail altogether. 
This the people of Portland Prairi* fully realized. 

The prairie people now?said that they would have 
to engage more in stock raising than hitherto and 
also must pay more attention to improving breeds. 
which some were already doing in regard to hogs. 
The early eighties was a sort of transition period 
which gradually brought about more prosperous 
conditions. Wheat had been the principal farm 
product upon which the prairie farmers had relied, 
the marketing of batches of hogs and occasional 
sale of a few steers to cattle buyers having been 
almost incidental to the first; but wheat raising 
days with the annual busy harvest on all of' the 
farms, were practically at an end. During the 
transition mentioned, creamaries began to be es* 
tablished in the county which kept bringing in 
ready money to farm<*r3 from the sale of cream, 
and eggs could be traded at stores for grocerici. 

But it should be said that matters went hard 
with the county at large during the early eighties 
in respect to loss in papulation as well as in other 



3« PORTLAND PRIRfE IN PRESENT TIMES 

ways; in fact, some of the smaller farmers whose 
farms were mortgaged began turning them over 
to the mortgage-holders in the late seventies and 
seeking homes in the newer west. A caravan of 
this sort of emigrants gathered from the Winne- 
bago Valley and neighboring ridges, left in the 
spring of 1879 and journeyed in their canvas-cov- 
ered wagons across the country to Nebraska. This 
caravan was said to comprise thirty-four persons, 
but since it was made up in part by families, that 
number included children. According to the gov- 
ment census of 1880, the population of Houston 
County then contained 16,332 people, which num- 
ber had decreased in 1890, mainly by emigration, to 
14,653. The thousands who went from southern 
Minnesota and northern Iowa and from Wisconsin 
and Illinois in those years, went far to help spread 
a population over the eastern half of Dakota. So 
far as Portland Prairie was concerned, some emi- 
gration ensued to the extent of a few families. 
H. P. Kelly, James Hanson, Christian Flessa and 
John Sinclair (the last named person from the Otto 
Deters place) left in the late seventies; E. C- Arnold 
and James Emerson in 1880; J. Shumway in 1881; 
Frank Healy also left about that time, August 
Guhl in 1882, and Mrs. Anne Sneesby and family 
a year or so later. 

Threshing had been done at the prairie in wheat 
raising days by powerful horse-power machines, 
propelled by eight or ten horses attached in spans 
1;p A heavy rig and kept circling around by a driver 



AN INTERMEDIATE STAGE 37 

Standing on a platform over the center of the 
•'horse-power" as it was called, this rig of course 
being separate from the threshing-machine. But 
in the early eighties steam engines were first used 
on Portland Prairie, though in use for threshing 
in some other parts of the state for some years 
previously. It seemed hardly in place to see an 
engine running a threshing-machine then with 
only oats, barley and clover-seed to thresh. But 
it was a sign of changing times. 

It was remarked of farmers in southern Minne- 
sota along in the nineties that some of them whose 
farms had been mortgagt-d in wheat raising times 
DOW had their lands clear of such incumbrances 
and their owners were beccming money-loaners. 
The change was attributed to creamaries and stock 
raising. Ihere were many farms in the county in 
the seventies and early eighties that had gone into 
the hands of banks and money-loaners; in the nint- 
ties these began to be bought by resident farmers. 
It was during that last decade of the century that 
the first of the big red barns b«gan to show up on 
Portland Prairie, together with other buildings 
necessary to stock raisirg. Toward the clcse of 
that decade the telephoLt ctn t into the commun- 
ity, the excharge at first beii g at the Cass place. 

In shipping stock a trsnsfer to standard-gauge 
cars had to be made at Keno, and incoming mer- 
chandise also had to be reloaded there. In the 
fall of 1901 the track of the branch was altered to 
the standard-gauge width of 4 feet 8i inches. 



HI. 
IN PKESENT TIMES 

TvT OT to jfive to the title of this section any very 
-*- ^ restricted meaning, we should state that the 
conditions now referred to on Portland Prairie are 
those attained in this second decade of the new 
century, now nearingits close, and for that matter 
as one would find them in the current year 1919. 
The contrast between conditions and farm life in 
present times and the same back in the decade of 
the sixties, is markedly wide on several accounts, 
as has already been described. In the older settled 
farm communities, largely improved conditions are 
usually the accumulated results of years of effort 
and their attainment is further influenced by the 
character of the times whether prosperous or hard^ 
Present day conditions on Portland Prairie were 
not attained in any one decade. 

To anyone familiar with the trend of farm life 
o-n Portland Prairie in the days of straw barns and 
generally indifferent houses, a marked change in 
these same respects is the various buildings now to 
be seen on the different farms. The old houses of 
former times have either been torn down or mov- 
ed aside for shops, woodsheds or storage- purposes 
and large roomy residences, usually two and a half 
stories high so as to provide square chambers 
above with a loft or attic beneath the roof to et.ore 
away things that are but seldom used. Several of 
these houses, built „within the present .-decade are 



IN PRESENT TIMES 



for the community in general, what might b« call- 
ed first class residences, but concerning which the 
people generally are apt to speak of as swell houses 
Y/hen referred to descriptively. They are provid- 
ed below with concrete partitioned basements 
with cemented floors, and are apt to contain a 
small gasoline engine to run washing machines, 
churns, pumps, or to compress air for air-pressure 
tanks that will force water to the rooms above. 
The mention of fine dwellings also implies house- 
hold furnishings to correspond with the houses. 
Some attention is also given to lawns and orna- 
mental shrubbery. Some of the things which 
the Portland Prairie farmers have in their homes 
now, including the telephone and phonograph, 
were scarcely conceivable to the residents of the 
same community back in the sixties, but though 
they had their longings for better conveniences, 
they never raised their hopes very high in regard 
to the future, their dominant wish, probably being 
this, a larger and more roomy house than those 
generally that they had to put up with. 

The big red barns, as indicated, present a strong 
contrast between these dfivs and the makeshifts of 
eld times. They are usually sixteen feet posted and 
vary in length from seventy-live or thereabout, to 
one hundred feet. Some of them aretprovided with 
modern barn equipments designed to save labor in 
taking care of stock and disposing of barn refuse. 
H«re, too, a contrast may be drawn between water- 
ing stock from a tank or water trough inside and 



driviil^ thert in winter some distant to a dug otit 
pond h6le 4ind choppinfr holes in the ice so the;^ 
cb^M'dritik. The prairie barns are quite geaerall:^ 
provided with stone walled basements. 

We have mentioned the lack of outbuildings^ 
particularly granaries, on the farm premises in 
the first half of the sixties, though in the last half 
of tS^at decade a beginning was made to better 
things i'n this respect. Besides the big barns, on6 
of i^sik size i^ lised on some of the farms for work 
horses, and this also may be fpfoVided with a wall- 
ed iinder part. Then other 6f the outbuildings in 
present days are such as a hfog-house, granary, 
silo, corA-crib, wa^on shed, woddshed, hen house, 
housed over water tank, and quite generally now, 
an automobile garage. On gotne of the farms, as 
already mentioned, the bddy part of the old house 
{likely with former additions gone) still remains 
as one of the outbuildings, used as a repair shop 
or for any other convenient purpose. These old 
relics of the early times of the community, for one 
thing, go to show the young generation of present 
days just the sort of dwellings their grandparents 
lived in, for the torn off ells or shed-roofed parts 
were often of some years later date than the main 
part of the house. On the whole, the number of 
buildings now to be seen on the prairie farms, in- 
cluding the residences and tnain barns, varies 
fVohi five or six to a dozen, according to the needs 
of the plac6 fiind dioice of the owner in regard t6 
what he might have or get along without. 



> '" •<* ' . * . '■ — i *' ' ■'■'■ " « 

From the experience!? of well-drillers in the 
county it was found that wells put down from 2&(l 
to 300 feet below what is the general surface levei 
of the county, would be very apt to furnish a con* 
fltant supply of water which the windmills would 
not exhaust. Deep wells on Portland Prairie were 
put down back in the nineties and now they are 
<;o]nmon to the farms of the community. The 
early wooden constructed towers and windmills 
were inadequate for practical use where the deeper 
wells are concerned, hence high steel towers and 
windmills are common to the farm premises. As 
the wind is far from being: constant, small gasoline 
engines are commonly used to supplement wind 
power; water tanks made of plank and housed 
over, have accompanied drilled wells on the prairie 
farms from the early days. It has been supposed 
by some that the deep wells go down to the level 
of the creeks, but evidently the water bearing rock 
strata lie somewhat at a higher horizon. The 
standing water in the bottoms of the drill holes 
varies rather widely, from ten or fifteen feet to 
as much as fifty or more. 

The farirers take better care of their land than 
in former times and plan ahead more in regard to 
their general farm arrange merts. There is a 
greater division of the farms into fields separated 
by barbed wire fences than when the zig-zag rail 
fence or those made of posts and boards Were 
commonly prevalent. There is much more seeding 
pf fields to grass for hay and pasture purposes. 



POR-TLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 



rotation of crops from field to field, mixed f arminfir, 
and carting of the barn refuse to the land. By 
thesd means in bringing up or fertilizing the soil, 
wheat can be raised, as in the old days, if the sea- 
son is favorable for it, though the fields sown to it 
are now apt to be limited in size, nor is its cultiva- 
tion g^neral . Owing to the general raising of hogs 
in the community, a good deal of corn is grown 
and' may be rated as the principal crop. A few 
traction engines are owned on the farms and it 
may be inferred without saving that they are now 
much better equipped with farm machinery, labor 
saving appliances and tools than they were thirty 
or forty years ago. 

To one who knew the community in the sixties 
or seventies, quite a noticable change about the 
farm premises is the groves or triple rows of pine 
trees cultivated mainly for windbreaks, usually on 
two sides outward from thd groups of farm build- 
ings. It was not supposed in the early days of the 
community that pines would flourish in the soil ef 
the prairie. Presumably the oldest pine groves 
in the community are those on the premises of 
Edwin Shumway and Willism Wiegrefe. In some 
instances, as where farms border on the ridge and 
ravine tracts, oak groves of natural grown timber 
make good windbreaks. 

The main dependence on the Portland Prairie 
farms is raising hogs and cattle, of course of much 
better breeds now than in times when, in the case 
of the pattle, which, with their rather free rlTnge 



IN PiiESENT TIMES 43 

over ridge-aud-ravine sections were said to have 
become "bred in and out," so that cattle buyers 
in filling out their lots had to select from among 
them. In transporting hogs to Caledonia, either 
on wheels or on runners, as the case may be, it 19 
customary for neighbors to supply any extra num<> 
ber of teams that may be needed on a given day, 
and so exchange similar assistance in regard to 
team work of that kind. 

We should contrast trading and market facilities 
between present times and those of long ago. As 
before stated, Lansing and Brownsville were the 
nearest market towns to dispose of wheat cleaned 
and sacked for transportation, and dressed hogs— 
and that was about all the prairie farmers had to 
turn off that would bring in ready money. Trips 
to the places named ''spoiled two days" as some of 
the farmers expressed it. Eggs had a nearer home 
market; they could be taken to Caledonia or to 
Dorchester and traded in for store goods at ten 
cents per dozen or thereabout. In 1867 Christo- 
pher Bunge opened a store in a vacated log house 
where the village of Eitzen thereafter began grow- 
ing up. The prairie people had little occasion to 
trade at Dorchester except in connection with the 
taking of mill grists there and in going after the 
same, but after 1867 the farmers generally took 
their grists to either of two mills in the Winnebago 
Valley, where a store was maintained at times. 
As already stated, Caledonia was the principal 
trading point; but the amount 0^ business tran^^ 



44 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

acted there in the old days really seems ligrht in 
comparison with these times and the advantas:e of 
railroad shipping facilities at that place. 

About the year 1868 certain parties erected a 
stone-built warehouse close to a navigable slough 
one mile north of the site of New Albin. This was 
about four years before that village was started. 
A store and a house or two were erected besides 
the stone building, but there was no room there 
between the foot of the bluff and the slough for a 
townsite, but the place had a temporary existence 
until the river line of railroad was built. In the 
interval considerable wheat was sold at the "new 
landing" or Jefferson, as it was called, and barged 
awa.y by a small steamer. Lumber was sold there 
and the house in which Alfred Albee resides was 
yriginally built of materials hauled from that 
place by J. Shumway. With the starting of New 
Albin in 1872 the near by place rapidly declined. 
New Albin furnished a nearer market to which 
wheat and live stock could be takea than Portland 
Prairie people had possessd before. 

The changing of the narrow gauge track of the 
Preston Branch to the standard gauge doubtless 
was a move advantageous to the business men and 
farmers of the central and southern parts of the 
county in many ways. While doing away with the 
transfer of merchandise, wheat and live stock lit 
Reno, loaded cars from any part of the United 
States or Canada can be side-tracked at Caledonia 
or any staition along the line. All this is quite an 



IN FftESENT TIMf^S 



advantage to such of the farmers who ship car 
loads of hogs and cattle direct to their commission 
man at the Stock Yards near Chicago. Caledonia 
has made great advancement in the last twenty 
years for an inland town and county seat and has 
become the chief trading point of the county. In 
some measure mercantile business there has been 
facilitated thru standardizing the railroad track, 
though the roadbed lacks somewhat the uniform 
smoothness of either of the river lines. We think 
there was no bank at Caledonia in wheat raising 
days, though A. D. Sprague and probably some 
others were money-loaners there. At the pr<*sent 
time, practically all the farmers of Portland Prai- 
rie have their bank accounts at one or another of 
those at Caledonia or one fit Eitzen. 

It is hardly twenty years since the automobile 
first began to attract attention in country towns 
and villages as a new sort of vehicle, and no very 
ornate machine at that, since the earlier ones did 
not have covered sides and tops and made more 
noise in running than the much improved modern 
ones do. Now the ownership of autos by Portland 
Prairie farmers is quite genf^ral and this change 
in modifying farm life has mainly been brought 
about in the last half dozen years. They may be 
a more or less expensive machine to have on the 
farm and maintain, but their owners would gener- 
ally agree that they are a convenience on several 
accounts, especially in making quick business trips 
to town and being at home again by noon. 



46 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN RESENT TIMES 

There have been many changes made in the 
location of the roads in the county, but the devia* 
tions from where they became fixed after the 
pioneer period had passed, usually haye not been 
very wide and most of them have been altering 
locations from the beds of ravines and hollows 
into the sides of the bluffs and hills, generally ten 
to twenty feet above their bases. Quite a marked 
change in the Caledonia road was made later than 
the sixties, where it crosses over the Rask hill in 
the north part of Wilmington township. Here the 
change made, along a distance of fully a mile, was 
to re-locate it from a few rods to as much aa a 
half mile farther west and minor changes in this 
re-located piece of road, of the kind mentioned, 
have been made since. On Portland Prairie itself 
the roads remain as to location where they were 
in the sixties. For many years there was but 
little wearing down of the roads, even on the long 
slopes, into the surface loam. In present times 
the slopes are cut down two to five feet below the 
original prairie surface and into the clay subsoil. 
This erosion is mainly due to rain wash, but in 
dry weather the automobile tires grind the clay 
to dust so that much of it is easily removed by 
winds and showers. Clay mud makes the roads 
diflficult to travel in moist weather with any sort 
of vehicle, and ultimately they generally will have 
to be graveled or macadamized, not but some such 
work may already have been begun in the county, 
and so t,his road topic often .elicits .discussion. 



IN P ABSENT TIMES 4? 

The silo, built of reddish colored hollow-tile 
blocks 13 becoming common in the community aa 
a useful appendage to the barns. They are usually 
constructed 14 feet wide inside, 38 feet high, ex- 
tend several feet below ground and are plastered 
oyer inside with cement. The first ones on any of 
the prairie farms were built several years ago for 
H. L. Lapham, William Deters, Albert Bunge, 
Alfred Albee and Lewis Deters, all in the same 
working season. 

The daily delivery of mail in boxes by the road 
aide, by rural service, has been in vogue in the 
community since the early part of th^jiew century. 
This renders it possible for the farmers to take one 
or more daily papers published in the Twin Cities, 
Milwaukee, LaCrosse and even Chicago, though 
usually a day old when they reach the community; 
but here one may hark to early days with a weekly 
mail service and weekly papers, which in the case 
of those printed in Chicago, now and then, though 
not often, failed to get thru the same week they 
were printed. One mail route from Caledonia now 
supplies the major portion of the prairie commun- 
ity and other districts on the route both in coming 
from the starting point and in returning. 

Portland Prairie tarn ers generally own wood 
lots in the ridge-and-ravine districts. It has ever 
been the practise to sled the year's supply of wood 
to the farms while the snow lasts, the wood being 
largely in the form of tapering poles ten to four- 
teen feet in length, some of the larger onet eight 



'48 PORTJLAND PRAiKm IN PRESENT TIMES 

to ten inehes at the butt ends. The old way was 
to chop and split up the wood in the spring prior 
to the commencement of field work, good sharp 
axes being required for the chopping, though to 
some extent a bucksaw was used. In regard to 
logs, and those formed a large part of the wood 
then hauled in, a beetle and wedges were used as 
in the days of splitting fence rails. In contrast 
with this, of late years a portable machine consist- 
ing mainly, besides frame and its truck wheels, of 
a gasoline engine, large buzz-saw and movable 
table, is taken around from farm to farm and the 
piles of wood awaiting it are expeditiously sawn 
up in stove lengths to be split later. As it requires 
at least five men to tend the machine, some chang- 
ing of work is made among neighbors. 

Without doing more than merely mention the 
social gatherings at the farm residences, inter- 
change of family parties, etc., it may be sard that 
in these times the organ or a piano is a common 
adjunct of the parlor and the phonograph is quite 
common in the farm homes of the community. 
These and other things, including books of modern 
authors and occasional pleasure trips in summer or 
fall with the automobile, all contribute toward 
making the farm life of the community worth 
while. 

We shall next list the owners of land properties 
in 1919 in the eight Portland Prairie sections that 
border the Wilmington- Winnebago township line, 



IN PUESEICf TIMES 49f^ 

comprising the greater portion of the prairie as 
well as some of the ridge-and-ravlne land. The 
sections gone over will be listed alternately, first 
in one township then in the other, and from north 
to south. It is hardly necessary to say that a 
section comprises a square mile or 640 acres, large 
enough in a region of small farms to contain sev- 
eral of them within its limits, for instance, eight 
eighty-acre farms. 

Before listing the land owners in the sections 
indicated, we shall make some mention of such 
large county maps and township plat-books as have 
thus far been published for Houston County, and 
we refer to those on a scale large enough to show 
farm bounds and owner's names. In 1871 a large 
map of the county was gotten up by some LaCrosse 
parties and probably printed in Milwaukee or 
Chicago. Around the margin werr some pictures 
of residences, mills, etc., and it made some at- 
tempt to show the topographic features of the 
county, something lacking in plat-books. Inquiry 
at the court house in Caledonia developed the fact 
that nothing of either kind mentioned of earlier 
date concerning the county was known there as 
ever having been published. A township plat- 
book of Houston County was issued in 1878 and 
another in 1896, probably the only ones for the 
county ever published. In 1901 another krge 
farm map was issued and later one was gotten up 
by Caledonia parties which is not dated but was 
printed about 1915. 



50 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 



Section 13, Wilmington, 

la the north half of the section, Albert Bttnge 135 acres; 
Wm. F. Deters lao acres; (this tract located io iu northwest 
qaarter wais formerly known as the Ingvaldson place); also 
a five acre tract in the so«thwest part of the northeast quarter; 
John Hoher 60 acres on the west side of the northwest quarter. 
(The north half of this section is not divided on lines of forties 
and eighties.) 

Io the south half of the section, Wm. F. Deters 90 acres; 
S evert Holter 70 acres; Herbert L. Lapham 60 acres; Henry 
Sebroeder too acres, the last two farms comprising the sonth* 
west quarter of the section. 

Section 18, Winnebago. 

This section is mainly ridge- and-ravine land, the broad 
ridge tops having been mostly cleared of their original growth 
of brush and scrub oaks. In the north half of the section, 
P. Anderson 55 acres; Sever Davidson 20 acres; Sever John- 
son 62 acres; Henry Stehr 80 acres; Carl Hanson 20 acres; 
Albert Bunge 69 acres. (The division line between the tracts 
of A. Bunge and S. Johnson is a road that leaves the township 
line near Bunge's residence and passes down a narrow and 
wooded ravine northeasterly into tbe Winnebago valley.) 

The southeast quarter of the section is owned by Peter Hol- 
ier and the south>vesl quarter by Carl Hanson. 

Section 24, Wilmington, 

This section comprises gently rolling pr»irie land, a little 
in the line of forest, and the eastern portion of the Wilmington 
ridge. Northeast quarter, Geo. L. Watson 160 acres. The 
west half of this section is considerably divided np and wilt 
have \o be treated as a whole aside from the order mentioned. 



m RRESKKT TllffiS 51 



The two oortb forttei of the aartbweft quarter of section 24 
are owned by Ceo. L. Watcoo and Mrs. Haar, and border Ue 
Caledonia road, the first 00 two sides, east and north. Next 
sonth of these forties are the farms of Herman Schoh and 
WiUiam Bramme. The first named consists of 7$ acres with 
an additional tract of 29 acres adjoining in section aj. The 
farm of WiUi«m firamme contains 85 acres. 

Next south of the Watson quarter, WiUians Wiegrtfe 8q 
acres; south of that, Frank Thies 80 acres, these two eighties 
constituting the southeast quarter of the Kction. In the sonth 
half of the southwest quarter Geo. H. Meyer and Christopher 
Stigen each own 40 acres, these fortties in both inttnaeei 
being of the nature of parts of farms situated in other quarter 
sactioni than those in which the farm buildings are located, 
rather common among the farms of the community. 

Section 19, Wianebago. 

Like section 18 next north of it, this section is mainly of 
the ridge- and-ratine type. Lands of this character have 
changed ownership more frequently than the land originally 
covered with prairie grass. In the northeast quarter, W|n. 
Kruger 40 acres; Frank Thies 40 acres; Wm. F. Deters 40 
acres; Carl Schoh 40 acres. In the northwest quarter, oast 
eighty, George H. Lapham; west eighty, Wm, F. Detefs. 

The southeast quarter of this section is owned by Carl 
Schoh. bouthwest quarter, Frances P. Laphato 99 acres, 
the remainder of the quarter belonging to the Wiebke estate 



Section 25, Wilmington. 



Northeast quarter of section, northeast forty, Henry Hta 
40 acres; the remaining three forties owned by Alfred Albee. 
The north half of the northwest quarter, 8e acres, is ofwned 
by jGeo. H. Meyer. 



52 PORTLAND RPAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 



The southeast quarter of section 25 is owned by William E, 
McNelly. Next west of this qaarter-section Augnst Wiegrefe 
has a farm of 127 acres, which takes in a forty of the north* 
west quarter of the same sectioo. Partly west of the last, 
Bernhard Schoh owns 87 acres in the two quarter sections, 
a3 in the other case, and also has land and the farm bnildings 
in section 23. Lastly, a tract of 26 acres in the southwest 
ccjrner of the section is a part of Otto Deters farm. 

Section 30, Winnebago. 

Northeast quarter, which is partly bisected by the upper 
parts of ravines, is owned by Diedrich Thiele. 

West half of section, Wiebke estate 120 acres; the northeast 
forty of section Henry Haar; south of the last the former 
Cass place is owned by Alfred Deters 60 acres minus a small 
Tract c'eeded by George Cass to the Methodist Church for a 
church site and cemetery. South of the last Edwin Shumway 
50 acres, mainly the soathwest forty of the section; E. Carstea 
4^ acres on the east side of the section; the remainder of the 
section comprising three forties, owned by Fred Deters. 

Section 36, Wilmington. 

The map of the county issued in 1871 showed that there 
were then ten land holders in school section 36. Thas this 
section was more thoroly subdivided than any other section 
wholly or in part within the pra rie limits Presumably for a 
term of years the land owners merely paid to the school fund 
interest on the rated value of the land with taxes on such farm 
improvements as had been made and their personal property. 
The size of these farms varied from forty to eighty acres and 
little change in this respect had ensued since settlement times. 
The whole section drains to Waterloo creek by the Archie 
Creek ravine for the east part and th^ Pu<^ Crock ravino for 
its western portion. 



IN PRESENT TIMES 53 

In northeast quarter of the section east of the Dorchester 
road, Otto H. Fruchtc 40 acres. The rest of this qaartor 
lying west of the road, is owoed by Emma Schultz. Easi 
eighty of the northwest quarter Oeo. C. H. Meyer; west eighty 
Otto Schulti. ( This eighty prior to 1S65 was John McNeUy'« 
first farm.) 

The southwest quarter of this section is owtttd by George 
C. H. Meyer. (In 1896 this quarter had three owners.) To 
ttie east of the Dorchester road the south half of the mile long 
strip between the road and township line is owned by George 
Deters (36 acres), except a small tract of four acres vpoa 
which the old Shumway house and log cabin once stood, tbit 
tract being owned by John Deters. West of the road there 
are two sixty acre tracts, the former farms of Henry Robifticft 
aud August Guhl, a son of jorgen Gnhl who in the sixties attd 
iater owned the place. The first is now owned by Herman 
burmester and the other by Fred Deters. 

Section 31, Winnebago. 

This section is somewhat rolling as it intersected by some 
branchlets of the Archie Creek ravine. It has the Lansing 
road along its north side. 

The northeast forty of the northeast quarter of this lection, 
E. Carsten; the forty south of that, Frank Deters; Lanrperl 
i-inde 40 acres; Fred Deters no acres; west eighty 0* tb« 
northwest quarter Otto Fruehte, all of these laodt being in 
the north half of the section. 

The southwest quarter of the section is owned by George 
Deters; southeast quarter, west eighty, Lampert Linde who 
has 120 acres in the section; east eighty, W. B. Meyners. 



IV. 
(OUNTBY VI>W FHOM THK RIDGE 

WHAT w€ have spoken of as the Wilmington 
ridge is the easterly portion of an extensive 
ridge system covering a considerable area in each 
of the townishij^s of Spring Grove, Wilmington and 
Caledonia, some less in the last named township 
than in the other two. Our meaning, therefore, 
while restricted to the part of the system in Wil- 
mington township, more specially applies to th« 
portion of it rising a hundred feet, more or less, 
Above the general level of Portland Prairie. 

Considered in its entirety, the system is very 
irregular in its outlines mainly owing to numerous 
spur ridges projecting one to two o-r more milee 
north and south from the main body and axis of 
ihis upland terrain. From near Newhouse station 
in the southwest part of Spring Grove township 
to a point one mile west of Caledonia, in a general 
northeastern direction, the main axis of the ridge 
system stretches thru a distance of about fifteen 
miles and forms a water parting or drainage divide. 
This axis is not wholly cci tiruris as It is inter- 
rupted in a few places by gaps. The ridge and 
its spurs is mainly formed of white sandstone and 
above that is a layer of about fifteen feet of hard 
limestone, unless broken up into flaky fragments 
mixed with clay as is apt to be the case on the 
less elevated spurs under the top soil. The sand- 
stone does not extend very deep below the base of 



COUMT:<y VIEW Fl^M THE RIDGE 55 

the ridges before being replaced by another stra- 
tum of limestone. The sides of these ridges are 
quite generally timbered and those with the broad- 
est tops are cultivated as fields. The highest 
portion of the ridge system is the part of it at 
Spring Grove which is 1322 feet above sea level. 
In Wilmington township the altitudes are about 
1250 to 1300 feet. 

Without taking note of the lay of the land in 
the vicinity of the portion of the ridge in the east- 
ern part of Wilmington township, we shall give a 
brief description of the prospect obtained from 
this elevation at some distance and to the limit of 
the sky line or horizon. This fartherest limit 
varies con.siderably according to direction. Thus, 
west and partially northwest and southwest any 
distant view is intercepted by the wooded nature 
of the ridge itself and its spurs. 

First as to the prospect northward. This view 
covers much open country as far as to where some 
portion of Caledonia can be seen on the wooded 
horizon about seven miles distant air line meas- 
urement. This stretch takes the vision across 
four or five intervening rnvines, but these deep 
and narrow valleys are scarcely perceptible owing 
to prairie and the tops of the ravine-ridges having 
nearly a common level, together with the tree 
growths usually prevalent on the sides of the 
ravines that project above the ridge tops. A broad 
landscape of this character anywhere in the county 
js apt to present a more less checkered aspect, as 



5S POjRTLAND PRAIKIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

divided between open farm lands on the one hand 
and groves and wooded tracts on the other, the 
otien lands prodominating. The intervening de- 
pressions mentioned are the upper portion of the 
valley of Winnebago creek, some of its branches, 
and nearer Caledonia, one or two synciines that 
takes drainage waters to Crooked creek, all of 
which make the road to town a succession of up 
and down grades, long or short, yet with no very 
steep hills. But little of the road can be seen 
from the ridge top owing to groves and its fre- 
quent dipping into hollows. On the whole, the 
district looked across appears as if moderately un- 
dulating, but it is more pronounced than that for 
you barely more than see the top parts of the 
intervening depressions. The broad ridge tops 
between ravines have quite generally been brought 
under farm cultivation. North and northwest 
the landscape is dotted with red barns and white 
houses, and altho the view takes in some part of 
Popes Prairie, there are more of them in sight 
in a northwestern direction, a district in which 
the ravines begin to fade out, than elsewhere 
within the included prospect. In that direction 
the view is limited to a definite number of miles* 
from about five to eight, by thej upland ridge in 
Caledonia township, taken in its entirety. At one 
point directly west from Popes Prairie, this ridge 
is cleft by an opening about forty rods wide called 
"the gap" thru which some little and distant part 
of Black Hammer township is visible. South of 



COUNTHY VIEW FROM THE RIDGE 57 

the gap to the railroad bridge over a less wide 
gap than the other, the ridge is bare of trees and 
generally so for quite a distance in the opposite 
direction. For the remaining distance of some 
three miles the ridge slopes are timbered. At a 
point to the southwest of Caledonia there are some 
large groves extending outward east from the 
base of the ridge and conjointly they make quite 
a forest tract thru which the railroad runs. The 
county poor farm buildings are located in a large 
wooded embayment of the ridge in the vicinity. 

Next in regard to the eastward prospect which 
along a limited stretch of horizon appears to ex- 
tend to the tops of a few of the Mississippi bluffs. 
The view in this instance from southeast to north- 
east is over that ^ortr of country that we have 
spoken of as of the ridge-and-ravine type, or 
ramified with deep-cut narrow valleys and broad 
intervening ridges with slightly rounded tops and 
all nearly of the same height- naturally forming 
timbered districts. Altho this stretch of vision 
lies directly across the Winnebago creek valley, 
the bottom of which is usually from a quarter to 
a half mile wide, one would hardly suspect ita 
presence within the area of country specified a&d 
owing to the reasons already mentioned. Jhe 
lay of the district appears to some extent as if it 
were broadly undulating and much timbered be- 
sides, as one might expect from the nature of its 
real topography. There are but few farmsteads 
visible in the district in question that are more 



58 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

than one or two miles distant and not beIon£rin^ 
to the Portland Prairie community. In a north- 
€astf»rn direction, and stretchingr around toward 
Caledonia, there is a broad ridge top upon which 
the sky line coincides with open or cleared land 
some four or five miles distant, two groups of 
farm buildings being in view there. This is part 
of a rather wide ridge or plateau intervening 
between the valleys of Winnebago and Crooked 
creeks. In the early days one could look north to 
some miles beyond Caledonia, but the growth ot 
trees in the vicinity of that place, particularly west 
of its meridian, now limits the sky line to about 
the latitude of the county seat. 

We turn and look southward, the view now 
presented also taking in southwest and southeast 
directions. The longest range of vision from th* 
view point all around the circle of the horizon 
is south, where, for a short space of the sky line, 
it reaches to the vicinity of Waukon which is some 
twenty miles distant. 

From about the base of the ridge itself, and 
extending south and southeast from two to three 
or four miles, one has in view from the ridge top 
the greater portion of Portland Prairie. As has 
before been stated, the surface topography com- 
>prises numerous swells of ground the summits of 
which do not appear to vary much in elevation. 
The intervening drainage synclines are not very 
apparent except within less distance than a mile. 
Within the prairie area, not taking account of iti 



COUNTRY VIEW FROM THE KIDGE 59 

ravine borders, there is little to be seen of the 
natural growths of trees and but for the cultivated 
windbreak groves around the farmsteads, almost 
the entire prairie district would form a treeless, 
though farm-cvltivated, section of the county. 
The separate groups of farm buildings, being in 
the main scattered along the principal road, are 
not as numerous over the large area covered as 
might be supposed for one generally consisting of 
small farms. The longest stretch of the prairie dis- 
trict is toward the southeast and the view in that 
direction includes Eitzen, but the place s partially 
obscured by trees in its vicinity; however, the 
large new church just south of the village is more 
clearly defined as seen over lour miles away. 

In a southwestern direction, from one to three 
miles di^tunt, the viev is teimirfitid ly two 
southerly projecting spur ridges which in part 
ftre timbered. When the longer of these ridges 
oeases to intercept this southwestern prospect, 
one sees still farther away be> ond the upper part 
of Waterloo creek a broad highland which lies 
between the creek valley and that of the Oneota 
or Upper Iowa river of which stream the creek 
is a tributary. The northern slope of this high- 
land has a gradual descent toward the creek, since 
along its upper reaches its immediate valley is of 
moderate depth and ii« IciceitCi ly hill sides 
quite unlike the high steep blufis a few miles 
below. The summit of the highland has a timber- 
ed horizon but the slope is partially open, cleared 



60 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN FRESBNT TIMES 



farming land. This terrane, physically, is a sort 
of combination of the common ridges between 
ravines and those of the Spring Grove and Wil- 
mington type, having the same rock formations 
and evidently of about the same elevation. The 
highland terminates with a wooded point about 
south from the viewing location. 

Southward you look across the Waukon ridge 
beyond the Upper Iowa river, with wooded bluflf 
tops north of the river and the western side of 
Portland Prairie and groves along the course of 
Duck Creek ravine in the nearer foreground. 
The Waukon ridge is an extensive upland terrane 
though intersected to some extent by small creek 
valleys and ravines, but these features are obscur* 
ed owing to timber tracts and distance. The long 
view beyond the Oneota stretches from a little 
west of south around to the southeast with a wood- 
ed horizon like a continuous stretch of forest, but 
probably consisting of separate timber tracts and 
farms which blend together in the distance. 

While speaking of long and short vistas we may 
as well correct a misconception held by some per- 
sons, to. the efi'ect that if they stood upon a large 
and perfectly level prai/ie, they could see low 
objects many miles away. The surface view, in 
fact, is limited to about three miles ©wing to the 
curvature of the sphere of the earth, and in re- 
gard to a timber belt 10 or 12 miles distant, yon 
could only see its top, unless from higher land. 



V 

3()MR OF THK PRAIKIE FARMS 

IT will now be in order to present some sketches 
in regard to the various Portland Prairie farms 
within the major limits of the community, giving 
8ueh details concerning each one noticed as were 
observed, or in most instances, obtained directly 
from farm owners themselves. The farm sketches 
will also contain historical notes relative to most 
of the farms described, but we are not enabled to 
go back to original entrys from the government 
in all cases, nor specify all of the changes in own- 
nership that have ensued during more than two 
generations. No attempt will be made to de- 
scribe places in Section 32, Winnebago, and there 
id a deficiency of detailed information in regard to 
lands in Section 31 of the same township; also 
some of those in Section 36, Wilmington township. 
It is our opinion that the family records attached 
to the farm descriptions will be the portions of 
this booklet appreciated most of all, but these we 
were not able to obtain as thoroly as desirable, 

ROBELLE BROTH KRS. 

The two farms of Edwin and Oscar Robelle will 
here be considered together, since they are the 
two parts of a once larger estate. On the north 
side of the Wilmington ridge there extends in th«> 
same direction a considerable wooded sub-ridge, 
or projecting spur of the main ridge which is 



62 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

about a mile in length. Three quarters of a mile 
to the east of this sub-ridge there is a smaller one 
about a quarter of a mile in length which termin- 
ates near an east and west stretch of the road to 
Caledonia, and mainly covers the most northwest- 
ern forty of Section 24, Wilmington, Between 
the larger and smaller sub-ridges there is quite a 
large embaym«*nt enclosed on three sides by the 
main ridge and its spurs. At the southern end of 
the embayment there is a conisderable body of 
timber, as mentioned on page 16, in the old days 
called "Kellys woods," and which extends up on 
to the main ridge. A piece of road leaves the 
Caledonia highway in a hollow below the Haar 
residence, winds around the west bas^ of a sand- 
stone mound or conical hill in the woods mention- 
ed, and intersects the road that comes up Duck 
Creek ravine from the south, on the ridge top. 
For the most of the way this short cross-road 
separates the Haar and Robelle farms. 

The Robelle brothers farms occupy the west 
half of the embayment and also extend up on to 
the timbered sub-ridge bordering it on the west. 
Edwin Robelle's farm comprises four forties in 
the south half of Section 14, making 160 acree. 
The farm buildings stand at the foot of tlie spur 
ridge, the timbered slope of which protects them 
from west and northwest winds. There i» a fair 
sized residence on the premises, the usual ted 
barn, and about a half dozen outbuildings used 
for farm purposes. The premises are those once 



SOME OP THE PRAIRIE FAKMS 63 

occupied by Knut Anderson and after his death 
by Ole E. Robelle, father of Edwin and Oscar, 
who was a relative of Anderson by marriage. He 
built the house now on the place, the old one 
being moved over west from the farm. The new 
house was built in a style to present several ga- 
bles to its roof. The drilled well on the place 
goes down 315 feet, some deeper than is common. 

Matters in regard to family relations in connection with 
these farm sketches will generally be presented in a smaller 
siied type than that of the descriptire text, since they are 
something of a different order. Edwin Robelle was born Oct. 
15, 1883. Married Amanda, a daughter of Severt Johnson. 
:Sbe was born in 1897. Children: Obert, born March 11,1916; 
Moriss, born October lo, 1918. 

Ole E. Robelle retired from farming and went 
to live with a son Carl, dividing the home estate 
between two other sons, Edwin and Oscar, the 
latter receiving three forties in Section 23 imme- 
diately south of his brother's farm, and twenty 
acres besides south of his east forty, mainly the 
west part of the old-time Kellys woods tract- 
making a farm of 140 acres in all. The house and 
a few other buildings and windmill are located 
^n the southwest part of the embayment that has 
been described. Oscar Robelle married Blla, a 
daughter of Andrew Myrre. They have two ckild- 
ren, Lenora and Sophia, the oldest between four 
and five years of age. [Dates in regard to the 
Robelle families were only partially obtained,] 



64 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 



THE HAAK FARM. 

This farm was once a part of what has been 
referred to as the Kelly place, except the most 
northwestern forty of Section 24, now part of 
the farm in question, and upon which the resi* 
dence is situated. The Haar farm comprises the 
forty just mentioned, largely covered by the east 
sub-ridge referred to in the preceding sketch; 
and 110 acres adjoining next west in sections 14 
and 23. The farm buildings are located under 
the northwest shoulder of the sub-ridge and near 
the road to Caledonia. 

The Haar place has something of a history. 
The northeast quarter of Section 23 was entered 
from the government and the land deeded to a 
man named Pomeroy Angell, October 19, 1854. 
The next possessor of the quarter was Gershom 
Pope. In 1863 the quarter and two forties north 
of it was purchased by Harley P. Kelly of Blacks 
stone, Mass. Probably to that time the land had 
not been occupied or built upon. In the spring: 
of 1864 W. R. Ballou and Marcius Eddy put up 
for Kelly a house of hewn poplar logs cut in the 
woods on the south side of the quarter. Kelly had 
been living in the original house on the Watson 
farm, meanwhile doing something in the way of 
breaking up and fencing his rather large place, 
of which people said in those times that he had 
been unwise in having bought so much land in the 
first place. In 1871 Kelly made some sort of deal 



S0M6 OP THE PRAIRIE FARMS 65 

with Cornelius Metcalf Jr., by which he acquired 
a house lot in the northwest corner of the sub-ridgre 
forty. The log house stood a little east of this on 
the full quarter-section of the farm and in trying 
to move it, its lower portion broke up. Kelly 
now concluded to build a new house and during 
the year hf erected a rather large one where the 
Haar residence stands but it was not fully finished 
inside. A granary was also built on the lot under 
the hill. Whether Kelly ever sold off any of his 
outlying forties or not, we have no information, 
but in building the house his land was mortgaged 
to A. D. Sprague. In 1878 the farm was turned 
over to Sprague and the former owner moved to 
Nebraska. 

Sprague put renters on the farms he acquired 
and that was the case with the Kelly farm. At 
flome time or other Knut Anderson purchased two 
forties of the original farm that are now owned 
by Edwin Robelle and Andrew Myrre. Lewis 
Haar came on the place in 1892 and then or later 
made a purchase of it. After the death of Corne- 
lius Metcalf early in 1899. his farm was divided 
and the parts bought by several different parties. 
The forty in the corner of which the Haar resi- 
dence now stands, was acquired in that way. The 
buildings on the place are not many and are located 
in the two sections 23 and 24 though not far apart. 
The barn on the place was built in 1910 and the 
residence, one of the better class, about 1913. the 
other house on the same site having been torn 



66 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

down to give place to the new one. Lewis Haar 
was born March 26, 1863. In putting down a well 
on the place he met with an accident from the 
effects of which he died on his fifty-second births 
day, 1915. His widow resides in Caledonia and 
the farm is managed by relatives. 



ANDREW O. MYRRE. 

The farm of Andrew 0. Myrre consists of three 
forties lined east and west and located in the 
south half of Section 14, also an eighty north of 
these. Two of the forties were once owned by 
Knut Anderson The road to Caledonia turns 
north a quarter of a mile below the Haar premises 
and bisects the east parts of the middle forty 
and eighty. The residence and farm buildings 
stand upon an eminence or low broad topped hill 
between upper parts of two branches of a ravine 
that drains northeasterly to the valley of Winne- 
bago creek. The farm residence is a large framed 
one and there is the usual large red barn amonsr 
the buildings. Just west of the house stands a 
windbreak of cultivated pines. 

A. 0. Myrre married a daughter of Knut An- 
derson. The children of the family are grownup 
and most of them reside in the county. In the 
order of their birth came Ole, Carl, Martin, Celia, 
Albert, Amanda, Ella, William, Sterk and Neu- 
man. A child was also lost in childhood. 



SOME OP THE PRAIRIE FARMS 67 



HENRY SCHROEDER. 

In so far as the publisher has any information in 
regard to former owners of the southwest quarter 
of Section 13, Wilmington, in Civil war time its 
south eighty was in possession of Edin Ballou. 
Since Asa Sherman, a resident land speculator of 
settlement times, married a daughter of Ballou, 
it seems probable that the whole quarter-section 
was one of those which Sherman made original 
..entry of government land, but not having access 
^ to the county land records, we cannot verify this 
, supposition. In the spring of 1865 Ballou sold his 
eighty to William Hartley for $1,300, the new 
owner moving up from the Upper Iowa river 
.where he had been keeping a tavern on the road 
to Lansing. In the seventies the north eighty 
was owned by James Hanson, one of the "five 
brothers" (p. 25), who built a house on the place 
that stood a quarter of a mile north of the build* 
ings on H. L. Lapham's farm. In the late seventies 
Hanson sold his eighty to Hartley and emigrated 
to Douglas County, Minn. This sale brought, the 
quarter-section under single ownership. Hartley 
died about 1890 and prior to the death of his wife 
in 1896, she sold the former Hanson place to 
Henry Schroeder, also twenty acres off the west 
end of the south eighty of the quarter, making a 
farm of one hundred acres. 

The north side of the farm borders a wooded 
ravine, there being a grove of natural oak timber 



68 PORTLAN^D MtAIKIB W FRSSBHT TIMEB 

■ " ■' ' ' ' ■ ■ ■ ■ ' ■ I ' .III ,, 

on that side of the farm buildings and northwest^ 
which makes something of a windbreak to th^ 
farm premises, though there are also some cultb 
vated pines on the place. The farm premises 
are reached by a lane from the Caledonia road, 
this passway bordering the west end of H. L. 
Lapham's farm. The main part of the farm, 
residence was the former James Hanson house 
moved to its present location. This measures 24 
by 16 feet and an addition was later built on to it 
of the same dimensions. The barn measures 60 
by S2 feet, and was built in 190S. The owner gave 
the depth of his drill«Ki well as 218 feet. Besides 
the residence and barn there are additional farm 
buildings to the place, as has commonly becoma 
ihe case with the Portland Prairie farms. 

H«arjr Schroeder wat born to Hanoverf Germany, Mttrch 
.6, 1862. He cane to this cfountry wUti hi» parenu in 1875, 
who at first lived on a rented farm near Eittcn. Mri. Sebroe* 
def was born Auguit 6, lS68, the date of her varriagc t* 
Henry Schroeder being Febroarj 14, 1890. They have ai 
icbildfen other tban an adopted son, Elmer Schroeder, Bg« 
fourteen. 



HILKBERT L. L^PHAM, 



The remainder of the qusrter-section under con- 
sideration in the preceding sketch, ameunting to 
?i?ty acres, is owned by Herbert L. Lapham wh^ 
came on the place in October, 1897, after the deatk 
of the previous owner, Mrs. Hartley. Onita soutK 



dOHS or THE ItRAIHIfi: FABM8 $9 

aide the farm is bordered by an east and west 
stretch of the Caledonia road which turns south 
at right angles at its southeast corner. The farm 
buildings are located near this road corner. Edin 
B^allou came to the prairie in 1862 and built a 
house on the eighty he owned either that year or 
the one following. The existing house on the 
place, at first a small one, is the same that Ballou 
built after undergoing addition and other alter- 
ations by Hartley and the present owner. The 
barn on the premises measures 64 by 32 feet and 
among the other buildings is a silo built of red tile 
blocks, and a large circular hen house constructed 
of the same materials. The drilled well is 26fe 
feet in depth with about twenty-two feet of 
standing wateHn the bottom to draw from. 

The children of Levi L^. Lapbam, four in number, were ail 
bora on the old home fari^ in Section I9, Winnebago t&vfk- 
ship, Herbert L. Lapbam being the youngest, born Aagtist 
13, 1869. Married October 6, 1892 Flora j. Taylor whoi«ai 
born at Popes Prairie, July ao, 1870. 

Children: 

Florence J., born October 30, 1893; died jua« 16, 1894. 

Lola L., born August I, 1895. 

Grant L., born February 5, 1898. 

Gladys H., born April 7, 1903. 

Bernice, born June 13, 1905. 

Eloise, born October 4, 1907.^ 

There were four young men of American paientafv, waa of 
Portland Prairie farmers, who were with the Amaricsn Bxpi4i^ 
jlionary Force in France. Grant L. ratiroed Feb. !•, if If . 



TO PORTLAND PRAmiE IN PRESENT TTOES 



SEVERT HOLTER. 

In presenting these farm i^ketches the order is 
to take them in succession as they each border 
or are near the principal roads in the community. 
The farm of Severt Holter is part of the south- 
east quarter of Section 13, Wilmington, borders 
on H. L. Lapham's land and merely corners on 
the Caledonia road. The farm buildings are on 
its westean side some forty or fifty rods north by 
east from the road corner. The north part of 
the farm is intersected by the upper part of a 
ravine which renders it somewhat uneven. 

In the time of the Civil war the west eighty of 
the quarter-section mentioned was owned by Wm, 
£. Baliou. a local carpenter who lived here and 
there. He also owned the forty attached to the 
Watson farm. About the year 1865 Baliou sold 
his lands which had never been cultivated, to 
three young men of the community who had come 
from Wisconsin earlier, known as the Sinclair 
brothers. They built a house at the south end of 
the eighty about midway between corners and 
broke the prairie sod. About 1870 they sold the 
eighty to Ole Moen and it was long known as the 
**01e Moen place." Jn the early seventies the 
house was moved to the present premises and ten 
acres of the eighty was sold off the east side of its 
south forty to E. C. Arnold who lived where Wm» 
F. Deters premises are now, and who previously 
only had forty acres of land. 



SiJiAR OV THB PRAIKIE FAKMS 71 

t« -— ' : ^ : 1 _. 

The farm house is a fair sized one with ell part 
on the east side. The barn measures 48 by 30 
feet. Severt Holter and family came on the place 
in 1911, it havinjr previously been rented for some 
years. North of the buildings the land slopes in 
to a hollow, the ravine mentioned, which branches 
eome distance below the farm premises, one part 
making a deep syncline on Holters land and fading 
<>ut near the township line road north of Wm. F. 
Deters' residence; the other part runs to the north 
lof Schroeder's and Myrre's farm buildings and 
iiies out on E. Robelle's farm. The main ravine is 
a deep, ledgy one, wooded on its slopes, and runs 
northerly to the upper part of the Winnebago 
valley, being the flood drainage way of all of the 
farms thus far described. 

Seven Holter was born in Winnebago township in 1879. 
Mrs. Holler, a daughter of Ole Moen, was born on the far.ns 
in 1883. There are three children in the family: Ina, born 

,September 23, 1907; Olga, born September 29, 1910; Bernice, 

born December 17, 1912. 



THK WATSON K^RM. 

The northeast quarter of Section 24, Wilmington 
township, has been held in the family line since 
the year 1856. Some historical notes concerning 
the farm were given on page 17, which can "be 
supplemented more in detail in the present con- 
nection. In the first place, the land was one of 
^hose quarters which Asa Sherman entered from 



72 PORTLAND PfUIHie IN PRBSEWT TIMES 

the government, preaumably during the last half 
of the year 1854. Sherman transferred the land 
to James K. True of Burrillville, R. I., May 19, 
i,855. In the spring of 1856, Horace Arnold, one 
of the elder sons of Amos Arnold, left Rhode 
Island and located on Portland Prairie where he 
had acquaintances among the early settlers- Mr. 
True had decided to locate in Iowa and sold the 
quarter-section to Amos Arnold for $1,000 upon 
recommendation of his son, already located in the 
community, the deed being signed Oct. 6, 1856. 
About the first of August of that year, A. Arnold 
and fumily moved to Danielsonville, a cotton man* 
ufaaturing town in the eastern part of Connecti- 
cut, and did not come west until about eight 
years later, except to build a house on the place 
i{k Jfci(31, In the meantime Horace Arnold did 
something to fence and break a large part of the 
place, mostly in Civil war tin e. A forty acre 
"wood lot in Section 17, Winnebago, also belonged 
to the farm. 

The owner of the farm with some part of the 
family arrived on Portland Prairie June 19, 1864. 
The house was occupied by E. C. Arnold, oldest 
son of the owner who had come to the prairie m 
the spring of 1861, and had to be provided with 
another dwelling on the farm (p. 17). The Kelly 
family had occupied the house in 1863. The farm 
buildings were found to consist of the house with- 
out any addition and not wholly finished inside; 
a straw barn that had become partly open around 



dOME OP THE PRAIRIE FARMS 73 

the aides and a corn crib made of fence rails. 
Much had to be done that year to get things in 
better condition, such as relaying the cellar walls 
and fixing up the straw barn in which to winter 
3 yoke of oxen belonging to E. C. Arnold, a cow 
^d some poultry; also a stoned up well 7 or 8 feet 
iQ depth in the ravine a quarter of a mile east of 
the house which furnished considerable water 
after a pondhole was dug near it. The extent to 
which the farm had been fenced in may be shown 
by the following description: wholly across the 
north side from corner to corner; thence south 
along the township line road to the top of a hill 
that slopes up from the deepest syncline or shallow 
ravine on the place; thence west to the Caledonia 
road near where the scale house now on the place 
atands; thence in a northwesterly direction and 
lastly north some forty rods to the corner near 
H. L. Lapham's place. The jog made by the road 
on the north side of the ridge did not then exist. 
The greater part of this large field was in crop, 
some of it being rented that year. 

In the fall of 1864 E- C- Arnold was drafted asd 
had to serve in the army about a year. The farm 
was managed by Horace Arnold until the spring 
of 1867, when Geo. M. Watson assumed charge of 
it. He had come to Portland Prairie from Maine 
in 1865. As the years passed improvements wer^ 
made over and above what had been attained to 
the year 1867; the next year a granary waa built 
ion the place; in 1870 the house was enlarged on 



74 PORTLAND PRAIRIB IN PRESSKT TIMES 

its weflt 8ide;1n 1873 a porch was built mainly 
around three aideg; the same year a drilled well 
was put down 34 feet below the bottom of a pre^ 
viously dug and blasted out stoned up well some 
thirty feet deep, which thereafter furnished a 
fair supply of water, raised at first by a hand 
pump and later by a wooden windmill. The south 
part of the farm was largely covered with groves 
of mixed pqplar and scrub oak, and tracts of 
hazel brush. In the seventies this sort of land 
was grubbt;d out and brought under the plow, 
4&xcept a body of timber in the southeast corner 
of the farm and the hill slope across the ravine 
north of it which latter tract was cleared at some 
later date. A large amount of post and board 
fencing was built on the farm during that decade, 
replacing the old rail fences. About the time 
that wheat raising on Portland Prairie ended in 
the late seventies, Geo. M. Watson began buying 
stock and shipping to Chicago. 

On April 1, 1887, Amos Arnold deeded the farm 
and woodlot to G. M. Watson for $4,000, the price 
being an indication of the value of the prairie 
lands back in the eighties. Besides the hoUae 
there were no valuable buildings on the place At 
that time. The large barn across the road with 
stone basement, measuring ICO by 3H feet was 
built in 1894. An upper horse barn at the fodt 
of the end of the ridge, measuring 48 by 82 feetv 
was built about 1901. Other farm buildings were 
added to the premises at different timea- 



*>ME OF THB FRAIRTE Tkime 75 

In 1897 the house was rebuilt over in enlarged 
form and raised above hlghef than before so aa 
to provide square chambers and a garret under 
the roof above them. The main part extending 
east and west measures 34} by 24 feet; addition 
axtendihg south, 24 by 16 feet.* The porch re* 
mains much the same as on the former residence. 
Water is brought into the house from a cistern 
near the windmill at the foot of the ridge, this 
being higher than the ground Aoor of the house 
80 that the water passes thru an underground 
pipe by gravity. West of the house is a wood and 
eoal hause with upper part which was built in the 
middle seventies. 

An appendage to the farm is the forty acra 
tract which has the Caledonia road on the east 
and north sides. It lays nearly leveU but haa a 
mound-like wooded hill near its south side where 
the forty abuts upon the north slope of the ridge, 
fringed there to some extent by small oak treea. 
W. R. Ballou owned the forty in Civil war time 
and about 1862 started to build a house on it on 
the east side of the mound » but after excavating 
and walling up a cellar he abandoned the project. 
In those days the road struck across the forty, 
passing just north of the mound. Chas. P. Albee 
acquired the forty in 1871 and sometime in the 
nineties he sold it to G. M. Watson. 

• The dlm«nsion« of tht houge from 1170 to wn ««>«: Oftin 
part 24 by 16 feet; ell 18 hj 14 feet, with §he« totfed p»tl to ft to* 

feet wMe. Arrangement oi roomi below ilnCUr itk >TM«&t hOMft. 



i 6 PORTLAND r«Al«ra: 5N nt^ENT TIMES 

The Watson quarter-section is moderately roll- 
ing: or consists of broad low swells of the surface 
between rather wide concave hollows which w-e 
have designated as synclines to distinguish them 
from the actual deep, ledgy, and steep sided 
ravines, whose slopes are more or less covered 
with brush and trees (p. 6). There is no such 
thing on Portland Prairie as a large depression of 
the surface with raised ground all around it so as 
to enclose a marsh, lake or pond, though these are 
very common to parts of the country oyer which 
ice-sheets once moved- The prairie hollows are 
always continuous drainage ways, the fading out 
portions of ravines and their branches, having 
concave grassed-over bottoms ai)d more or lc8« 
gentle slopes that do not impede cultivation. The 
largest of these drainage lines on the Watson 
farm begins on the eastern side of the forty men- 
tioned and runs southeasterly thru the quarter- 
section, the bottom of the hollow leaving it some 
twenty rods north of its southeast corner. The 
north slope adjacent to the township line road 
forms a hillside forty or fifty feet high, but on 
the south side the vise t« the Wiegrefe farm is of 
the gentle sort. A minor branch of this syncline 
runs up to the school house. A few other minor 
synclines influence the lay of the farm, its drain- 
age, as in times of rapidly melting snows, being 
mainly down the Deters ravine. 

In the soutlieast corner of the farm there are 
several acres of forest land; a part of a larger 



dOMB O!" THE PRAIRIE FARMS 77 

tract about the corners of three other quarter- 
sections. A part of the Wilmini:ton ridge extends 
fifteen or twenty rods upon the southwest forty 
of the farm, this being its most eastward exten- 
sion, its base width being about a furlong, and at 
that point about eighty feet high. The brow of 
this hillside is crowned with a grove a hundred or 
more feet in width. This and the elevation make 
a natural windbreak to the residence which is 
near the foot of the ridge end. There are two 
orchards and a few pines on its lower slope where 
the same is not steep. 

TheVe are two high tower windmills at the farm 
prerriises, the well in the yards of the lower barn 
being 256 feet in depth. The other well at the 
foot of the hill slope is conveniently near the 
upper or horse barn and the pump is sometimes 
operated by a gasoline engine to keep the water 
tank filled. This well is about fifty feet less deep 
than the other. The farm is well provided with 
wagon sheds, stonewalled basements to the barns, 
a corn-crib 68 feet long into which a wagon can 
drive, and a hog-house has been built east of the 
lower barn the present year. The place is called 
Fairview Stock Farm, the raising of cattle and 
hogs having been carried on for many years, first 
by Geo. M. Watson until his death in 1917, and 
latterly by his son, Geo. L. Watson, the present 
proprietor. George M., made it a specialty to 
raise specimens of fine blooded steers, taking 
some of these animals to stock expositions. 



78 rORTLAHD PRAIRIC fK FRBSBNT ITIfBB 



Gioorge MortMi Wataon was bora io the state of If aiae, 
April s$, iS|9. Died at Portlaad Prairle» March 19, 1917. 

Married oa Christoias day, 1867, Lacy A. Araoid, joaageet 
daaghterof Amos Araold. She was bora ia BarriUfiUt^ 
k. X., Juae 6, 1846* 

Oae son, George Leaader Watsoa, bora Ootaber % 1879* * 

George L. Watsoa married October t6, 1903, MatUdi 
johaioa ^ Bloomiag I*rairie» Mina., bora Aagasr 3» 1879. ^ 

Chitdrea: Gertrnde A., bora Maj 10, 1903; Arthar L., 
bora November 30, 1906; Helea O., bora September I, I9»4* 



WILLIAM WIEGREFE. 

The eighty of which William Wiegrefe is the 
owner lies next south of the Watson farm. For 
upward of half of a century it was commonly 
known as the Wright place and until 1874 also 
included a forty south of the west half of the 
eighty, the forty during Wright's ownership, we 
think, never having been cultivated. It is pro}y 
able that the entire quarter, the southeast of 
Section 24, was entered from the government by 
some one person. Previous to the time that Mr. 
Wright purchased the place about 1862, a man of 
the name of Bsten owned it. 
' Sometime before coming west in 1863, the new 
owner had been a storekeeper in Blackstone, 
Mass. In 1864 the only part of the eighty fenced 
and cultivated was what lies west of the Ca]ede«> 
nia or main road thru the community which from 
early days has always cut through its west forty 
owing ^o the barrier made by the ridge. There 



rfOME OF THE PRAtHlE FARMS 



wa8 a log cabin on the place where the present 
house now stands when Wright came with his 
family and this he occupied until 1868 when the 
body part of the house was built. A well just 
•outh of it dug down into sandstone furnished 
considerable water. In 1877 the north addition 
io the house was built. The owner never had 
aay expensive outbuildngs, such as a barn, on the 
piremises. A woodshed just west of the house was 
built first and having pulled down the cabin, the 
family lived in it while the carpenters were at 
work on the house. 

The farm lies at the average height of the 
drainage axis of the prairie which extends south- 
<?a3t from the end of the Wilmington ridge. The 
greater part of the west forty drains to the Dock 
Creek ravine; most all of the east forty drains to 
the Deters ravine and a limited portion only on 
its south side down the long Wiebke ravine, both 
of the last opening into Winnebago Creek valley 
about three miles apart. On the whole this eighty 
is inclined toward being moderately level, ita 
slopes being of the gentle sort. There is a low 
ridge-like swell close west of the farm building* 
and a low mound-like one across the road to the 
east of them. A grove of oak trees close north 
and. north west of the house makes a good wind- 
l)reak. Bordering the road there stands several 
TOWS of large pines set out by the former owner- 
Several acres of the northeast portion of the farm 
(Sre covered by part of the forest mentioned. 



«0 PORTLAND PEAIBIE IN PRESENT TTMBS 

Mr. Wright died suddenly January 6, 1907. Hi« 
widow, a second wife, remained on the place and 
rented it until about the time of her death in 
1913. William Wiegrefe bought the farm and 
moved to it in 1914. Among the improvements 
made by him is a large red barn with basement* 
built in 1917 and which measures 66 by 32 feet. 
The well goes down 296 feet with about twenty 
feet of standing water in the bottom of the drill 
hole to draw upon. From 1896 to 1914 the pres- 
«nt owner resided in Chicago. 

WiiUam Wiegrefe was born in the Winnebago Talley, not 
far from the Johnsop mill, March 4, 1875. Married Ennia 
f reocbte, youngest daughter of Henry C. Freuchte an early 
pettier of Portland Prairie, December 7, 191 1. She was bora 
^«br«ary 1, 1881. 

Cbtldreo: Marvin, born Seprember 3, 1913; Mildred, 
born Aagnst ai, 1914; Harold, bom April 6, 1917. 



FRANK THIES. 

In the spring of 1866 Frederick Thies, who had 
been a soldier of the Civel war, moved the coop- 
ers's shop of John G. Cook from the present 
McNelly place to the most southeaftern forty of 
Section 24 and altered it into a dwelling house. 
The forty was still covered with the original 
prairie grass but had been fenced along the Albe« 
and Wright farm lines. On the east side along 
the townline road, there was no fence. At that 
time this road from Albee's farm northward was 



iOME OF THB ^lUlRW FATOffS 81 

but little traveled since the main road then cross* 
ed the forty itself. That season Mr. Thies broke 
iQp the land and changed the road to the line be- 
tween his forty and one of Wright's, building 
*l8o the necessary rail fences. 

The forty was bought of William H. Going for 
$675, and the title to it completed June 15, 1869, 
whith is the date of the deed that was given. On 
April 2, 1874 Mr. Wright deeded to Frederick 
Thies what is now the west forty of the farm, 
the consideration being $1,500— qui tea diflference 
in price for the same amount of land between 
that time and the price agreed upon for the other 
forty soon after the close of the Civil war. 

rhe group of buildings now on the farm occupy 
the summit level between a small syncline north 
and a broad shallow one south, this last being 
mainly on Henry Haar's land. Another prairie 
syncline bisects the west forty of the farm from 
its northeastern corner toward the southwest, 
this being a branchlet of the Duck Creek ravine. 
The drainage of the farm therelore is down both 
this and the Wiebke ravines, mostly down th>e 
first named one. 

Frederick Thies had eleven children, seven 
daughters and four sons, born from 1859 to 1879, 
Of these children, Frapk Thies, now in posfiesaioB 
of the place, came sixth. The elder Mr. Thies 
retired from farming and resides at Eitzen. 

There are about a dozen buildings on the farm 
premises, the most conspicuous of which is a fine 



H2 PORTLAND PRAIRIB IN PRESKNT TIMES 

residence built of cement stone blocks, the only 
one of that kind in the community. It was built 
in 1915, the blocks being hauled from New Albin. 
Without taking account of projecting parts, the 
house measures in the clear 34 by 32 feet, is two 
stories and an attic high, conveniently arranged 
in regard to rooms, stairways, etc. The cellar 
has concrete walls and is divided into compart- 
ments. The largest barn measures 66 by 32 feet. 
The well on the place is 275 feet in depth with 15 
feet of standing water. The buildings are con- 
venient to the main road at the east end of the 
farm and are enclosed on the north and west by 
rows of pine trees. 

FraDk Thles was born on the farm where he now resides, 
May 14, 1868. Married Louisa Frtuchte November 34, 1896. 
She was born at Portland Prairie July 25, 1873. 
Children: 

Lorah, born August 30, 1897. 

Martha, born April 30, 1900. 

Roy, born March 25, 1903; died July 4, 1915. 

£lia, born August 23, 1906. 

Walter, born March 20, 1912. 

Elmer, born July 30, 19 14. 



WIEBKE FARM. 

What is now called the Wiebke ravkie is a valley 
some four or more miles in length t» where it 
opens into the Winnebago valley, at which point 
it is about a quarter of a mile wide and as much 
as 250 feet in depth. In the old days the ravines 



dOME OF THE PRAIRIE FARMS 83 

were usually designated from some settler who 
lived in or near them, but being a minor feature 
of topography, names may change with each gen- 
eration in case there is no longer any association 
between person and locality. For many years 
after the settlement of Winnebago township the 
valley in question was commonly referred to as 
the Tippery ravine; the family of that name lived 
ht the Home place near a spring on the south 
aide, but left the county in the spring of 1879. 

The Wiebke farm is bisected by the upper part 
of the ravine where it is of moderate depth and 
the slopes gradual, the ravine there blending 
wUh the prairie synclines. The farm consists of 
60 acres in Section 19 and 120 acres in Section 30, 
Winnebago township. The west end of the sixty 
acre tract borders on the main road opposite 
Frank Thies farm; the other three forties are in 
line north and south a quarter of a mile east from 
the road. A road leading down to the Winnebago 
valley borders the south side of the sixty acre 
tract, but below where the farm buildings are 
located, it followed the bottom of the ravine. 
Then in the early seventies it was changed to the 
slope of the ravine on the south side and on the 
section line for a half naile or more. 

William H. Going was in possession of the sixty 
acre part of the farm in the sixties, also the first 
of the three forties south of it. After returning 
from the army, he built a house where the far^n 
buildings now are, in the fall of 1865. In the fall 



84 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

of 1873 Going sold his farm to Henry Wiebke who 
had been in the country since 1856. During his 
ownership of the place he made some improve- 
ments on the premises and acquired the two for- 
ties that are located next east of Alfred Deters' 
place, this being sometime after 1896. 

A large barn was built on the place in 1897 and 
the present farm residence, which is one of the 
better class of houses in the community, was 
erected in 1915 a little to the west of the old one, 
the foundation having been prepared the previous 
year. The house has additions, but the body part, 
two stories and an attic high, measures 36 by 32 
feet and is of the hipped roof kind with dormer 
windows to light the attic. There is a porch and 
balcony on the south front of the house. The 
old house has become one of the outbuildings of 
the farm, as is usually the case where they are 
not entirely torn down. The farm buildings oc- 
cupy a position near the foot of the gradual 
slope on the north side of the upper part of the 
long ravine mentioned, where this is of moderate 
depth and begins to spread out somewhat wider 
than the narrow and winding portion below. 

Henry Wiebke died March 1, 1916. He had 
been twice married and had eleven children, two 
daughters and three sons by his first wife, and 
three daughters and three sens by his second wife. 
Herbert and Fremont Wiebke, born respectively 
December 6, 1899 and July 23, 1901, now manage 
the farm . 



aUmE or THE PRJLlim f AHSB 8S 



\ HBNRV HAAK. ^ 

While taking: under consideration the farm of 
Itenry and Alice (Albee) Haar it will be conven- 
ient, ao far as any historical notes are concerned 
together with any description of the lay of the 
land, to include also the farm of Alfred Albee, 
since both places originally formed one rather 
large farm of two hnndred acres; moreover, the 
land titles have practically remained in the family 
line since purchase was made from the govern^' 
ment, with the exception of eighty acres from 
1869 to 1887. 

It appears that the land in the southern part of 
Houston County was open to settlement as early' 
as the fall of 1854, and that entries on the open 
prairie lands in that part of the county were quit* 
generally made at that time. Charles Fenner 
Albee secured the northeast quarter of Section 
25, Wilmington, and either entered or purchased 
of some party who had made entry on it, the 
most northwestern forty ot Section 30, Winne- 
bago, which is separated from the quarter-sec- 
tion by the main road that for one mile and a 
quarter runs on the township line. The circum* 
stances regarding Albee's first occupation of the 
farm in 1858 have been mentioned on page 18.' 
Whether any thing was done in previous years to 
fence in and break the farm we have no informa- 
tion, but the quarter was all under cultivation 
before the close of the Civil war. During that 



Sti t-OKTLA^D PRAIRIE IK PRESKKT TIMES 

period a threshing-machine was owned on the 
place. In 1867 a granary was built on the premises 
with loft above to lodge hired men, which is now 
one of the present farm buildings moved from its 
original location close by the road. The present 
house on place was built during the fall of 1875 
^nd has undergone no essential alteration. The 
old house is still on the premises, having been 
moved back to give place to the new one. 

The prairie drainage divide or axis, whereby 
surface waters find their way either to Waterloo 
or Winnebago creeks, runs thru the midst of the 
quarter-section. A drainage syncline runs south 
thru the south eighty of the quarter belonging to 
Alfred Albee, its bottom run dividing the eighty 
nearly equally, though the slopes on either side 
are, for the most part, gradual. The west half 
of the quarter is but slightly uneven. The forty 
across the road contains a broad shallow depres- 
sion which is the fading out portion of a branch 
of the uppermost part of the Wiebke ravine. 

The farm of Henry and Alice Haar comprises 
the forty mentioned and the most northeastern 
one of Section 26, on which the farm buildings 
are situated. The dimensions of the house are 
28 by 24 feet for the body part and the ell part on 
its north side measures 24 by 16 feet. The barn 
1neasures64 by 34 feet and was built in 1906. 
The drilled well has a depth of 806 feet. 

Henry Haar was born in Cook County, lUinois, 
December 4, 1850, and came to Portland Prairie 



riOJffE OF THE PftAlfitlE TAHMS 



In 1868» working raany years on the farms, in e^^ 
pecial for C. F. Albee. Alice (Albee) Haar wad 
born December 18, 1857. She was united in mar- 
riage with Henry Haar January 7, 1914. 



ALFRED ALBEE. 

Having already spoken of the earlier history and 
principal topographic features of the northeast 
quarter Section 25 in the preceding sketch, there 
will be no necessity for but little in the way of 
references of that nature in the present connec- 
tion. In the fall of 1869 Jeremiah Shumway who 
•Bince 1854 had been living in the southeast corner 
of Section 36, purchased of C. F. Albee the south 
♦eighty of his quarter-section, though the title to 
it may not have been completed that same year. 
In the spring of 1870 the granary a few rods south 
of the house with its stone walled basement, wa« 
built, and as soon as completed the family move^l 
up from the old place and occupied it while the 
iiouse now on the farm was in process of erection, 
this work going on thru that summer and fall. 
The lumber was hauled from the *'new landing,'^ 
the starting of New Albin then still being two 
years in the future. 

Besides the house and granary, there waa the 
•usual paucity of buildings on the premises that 
characterized the prairie farms in those days. 
Mr. Shumway neyer had any real barn on the 
premises, but maintained from year to year a 



J^S PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRtlSBNT TIMB* 

' ' ' ' ' III i ■ . !■ I I IT 

long straw shed south of the granary, upon and 
uround which the straw was piled in threshing 

^time. The cattle and hog yard was in between 
the dhed and the road. From this location a small 
syncline j-uns south to a larger one, in the ifirst 
of which a pond hole was dug. 

Mr. Shumway moved to Nebraska in 1881 and 
Alfred Albee became the next possessor of the 
iMghty. The deed conveying the property to him 
was signed January 12, 1887. Since the preseut 
owner has occupied the place the house has not 
been very materially changed; the front has been 
remodeled and dormer windows added to the roof 
to light better parts above, and some alterations 
were also made in connection with the ell part. 
The main body of the house measures 26 by 22 
feet and the ell part on the west side, 20 by 16 feet. 

^Ji barn measuring 70 by 32 feet with a lean-to 
40 by 20 feet was built on the premises in 1907. 

^ The barn has a silo at its north end. The well 
has a depth of 281 feet, reaching down into sand- 
stone and has 13 feet of standing water. The 
farm comprises the eighty mentioned and also 
the forty next west of Henry Haar's place, th« 
l^hree forties bHving been part of the original 
farm of C. F. Aib«*e. 

. Alfred Albee had two sons over in France dur- 
ii>g the last year of the war, namely, Alfred L., 
and Edgar J. Albee. The first named, the oldest 
jof the two, arrived home February 26, and the 
second, April 6. 1919. 



£)OME OP THE PRAIRIE FARMS 89 

Alfred Albet was bom oo the old home place ]m\j 33, 
|S63. Married September 35, 1889 Charlotte G. Ratcltfie 
of the Mt. Hope neighborhood, Iowa river. She wai born 
October 23, 1864. 
Children: 

Charles Benjamin, born January 28, 1891. 

Alfred Leonard, born August 27, 1894. 

Edgar Jay, born September 22, 1898. 

Halph Halstead, born November 29, 1900. 

Mabel Cailotta, born May 24, 1903. 

Donald Ratchfie, born November 4, 1906. 



ALFRED DETERS. 

This was the old Cass place, or part of it, ftrst 
occupied b.v William Cass Sr., and family in 1868. 
fle purchased the farm of D^iyid Salisbury who 
had entered it as government land. The owner- 
ship of part of the land for some ten year* Ky 
David P. Temple has been m^^ntioned OD page 19. 
Mr. Cass died suddenly December 8, 1883 and th« 
place passed to Geo. Cass who moved his own 
house from opposite Alfred Albee's to the ^ome 
premises. In U;89 he rented the farm so as t«i 
give his time to the piactice of niedicine, and 
about 1907 he .«old it to Alfred Deters. 

The farm is located on the west side of Section 
30, Winnebago township and as reduced in sie^ 
before the present owner bought it now comprise 
sixty acres. As originally entered by Salisbury 
it probably consisted of a whole quarter-section. 
Much of the farm is nearly level, occupying some 



9^ PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

portion of the prairie axis, but its southwest part 
i3 depressed by a syncline with quite a slope on 
iCs south side in the vicinity of the road. The 
farm buildings stand back about thirty rods from 
the main road and township line, and are reached 
by a driveway bordered by trees. The house on 
the premises, built four or five years ago, standi 
& little to the west of the site of the old one, and 
in its outward aspect resembles the one on the 
Wiebke farm. The barn on the premises wa§ 
buiit about 1870 by Mr. Cass. The old house or 
part of it has become one of the outbuildings of 
the farm premises. Alfred Deters married Ma- 
tilda Thieie, a daughter of Diedrich Thiele, but 
they have no children. 



EDWIN SHUMWAY. 

This farm is situated next south of that last 
described and comprises the most southwestern 
forty of Section 30, Winnebago, and some addi- 
tional land which according to original survey 
lines belonged to the Cass place, now owned by 
Alfred Deters, The farm has the main road of the 
community bordering its west and south sides. 
The forty is one of several adjoining ones entered 
from the goverument by Asa Sherman. In the 
late fifties Sherman sold the eighty bordering the 
Lansing road to Cornelius Metcalf Sr. Some ten 
years later, Mr. Metcalf deeded the west forty to 
l^is daughter, Hannah, wife of Rufus E. Shum- 



dOME OF THE PRAIfUE FARMS ^l 

way. The latter was then living on part of the 
McNelly farm. About the year 1867 he moved 
the houae that John G. Cook had vacated in 1865 
to the forty and on the present farm premises. 
In the decade of the seventies the house was the 
postoffice of the community to which the mail 
was brought from Brownsville twice a week and» 
toward the end of the decade, from New Albin. 

The farm occupies ground at what is the com- 
mon prairie level, there being a slope on the north 
side to the syncline mentioned in connection with 
the preceding farm sketch and which takes the 
surface drainage to the Duck Creek ravine. On 
the south side of the forty there is also a shallow 
syncline, the fading out porticn cf a branchlet of 
the Archie Creek ravine. Otherwise the farm is 
nearly level. The farm comprises the original 
Metcalf eighty and the twenty acres mentioned 
as appended to it from the eighty next north. 

R. E. Shumway had five children, of whom 
Edwin, born October 13, 1871, was fourth in order 
of birth. In the early nineties he was employed 
in a lumber mill at North LaCrosse and had the 
lumber shipped from there tor a new house on 
the place which was built for him by W. R. Ballou 
in 1891 on the site of the old one, the latter being 
moved back to become one of the outbuildings on 
the premises. The lat<»r house, fronting the main 
road where this is on the township line, measureg 
24 by 16 feet with a rear addition of the same 
dimensions. A barn and other buildings, includ- 



92 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

ing a silo, were from time to time added to the 
premises. The well goes down 290 feet below 
the surface, with the water standing at 15 feet, 
the bottom reachintr quieksand which presumably 
is the top of the same white sandstone seen in the 
base of the bluffs along Winnebago creek. In 
front of the house there are som# large pines set 
out by R. E. Shumway in the later sixties. 

The telephone was introduced into the commu* 
nity in 1896. At first the central was located at 
the Cass place and later moved for some time to 
Eitzen. For many years it has been installed in 
Edwin Shumway's honse in charge of his sister, 
Bertha. 

R. E. Shuumway resides with his son Edwin 
and in this year 1919 is the sole survivor living in 
the community of those of American birth who 
came to Portland Prairie in the fifties. He was 
born on a farm in Oxford, Mass., June 1, 1833 
*nd came West from Burrillville, R. I., in 1856. 



FARM OF W. E. McNELLY. 

Some of the prairie farms have changed owners 
only a few times since the land was entered from 
the original title vested in the government under 
the designation, Public Lands. Changes in owner- 
nership are apt to be more frequent during the 
earlier period following settlement times when 
the land has only a nominal value, than in later 
years when its price has advanced several times 



aOUB OP TBB FRAIHIB FARMS 93 

over and above the price received in earlier days. 
The farm of Wm. E. McNelly comprises a quarter 
section, the southeast quarter Section 25, and 
practically speaking, the east half of it has been 
owned by the McNelly family by inheritance and 
by purchase since the spring of 1865, 

Mention has been made on page 21 of the fact 
that Dr. Alex. Batcheller made entry on 320 acres 
of land comprising the south half of Section 25* 
Wilmington, and in the later fifties divided up 
this large tract to an extent that it had five own* 
ers in Civil war times. The east eighty border- 
ing the township line and main road had been 
eplit lengthwise into two long forty acre tracts, 
the doctor retaining the one adjoining the road, 
on which his residence was located, while John G. 
Cook was in possessien of the other tract. In the 
spring of 1865 both the doctor and Cook sold out 
and John McNelly, who had been living during 
the previous nine or ten years in Section 36, pur- 
chased their farms. This brought the divided 
eighty again under single ownership. 

The Everett eighty next west was first owned 
after Dr. Batcheller sold it about 1862, by a man 
of the name of McDan, but he did not retain the 
place long ere he sold it to >^ m. Walker Everett. 
The doctor had also resided on this eighty several 
years, having built a house and small barn on it 
about the year 1857. As before stated (p. 22) Mr. 
Everett was killed during the war and for many 
years thereafter the eighty in question became 



^4 PORTIAMD rRAififE IN PRESEKT TIMES 

known as the ^^ Widow Everett place.*' Josepli 
Wlnkelman of Mound Prairie township, who had 
been a Civil war soldier of the 10th Minn. Regt., 
came to Portland Prairie in the fall of 1866 to 
work in threslaing time, knowing that he wouW 
find several of his soldier acquaintances in the 
community. From that time onward he remain- 
ed at the prairie, managing: the Everett eighty. 
io 1875 he married the widow Everett. She died 
in 18^4 and Mr, Winkelman passed away October 
19^ 1^12, having survived the war 47 years. Th« 
farm now passed by will to the McNelly family. 
John McNelly died April 21, 1918 and the farm 
property next passed to Eugenia, a daughter by 
isi 3econd wife. Eugenia married August F. GuW 
and having decided to move to Canada, they sold 
in 1918 the quarter-section to Wm. E. McNelly— 
who had been living since 1893 on the Otto Deters 
place— for $25,000, including a twenty-acre wood 
lot across the state line. The present owner took 
possession the following spring. 

The lay of the quarter is a little rolling, its 
most marked topographic feature being a rather 
prominent synclire across its north eighty that 
«omes from Alfred Deters' farm and runs down 
to the Duck Creek ravine, of which it is a large 
branch. Though somewhat deep, the 8loi>e8 on 
either side of it on the quarter itself are mainly of 
the gradual kind. Two or three shallow hollows 
leading to it further modify the surface, but to 
no marked extent. 



;i01fE OF THK PIUIHIE FARMS 95 

The hpu^ Qr> the place fronts the road that 
is on the 6<iict^on;)ine o{ 25 and 36 and is the same 
tbat Dr. Batcheller built, bu|t,a8 added to and 
remoc^eli^d oyer by Jphn McNelly. The body part 
measures 24 by 1^ feelL; the ell about 20 by 16 ft. 
To the nor^hv, of the house therestapda a large U 
shaped barn on; an above-ground stone walled 
b^aement, the two parts ex tending, east and w#Bt 
and north and south, measuring. 90 by 34 feet. 
ihe ba^n was built by August Guhl and has some 
of the modern barn equipments. Standing on. a 
basemnet above ground it makes qvU^ » conspie- 
U0U3 landmark, for the farm buildings occupy », 
site on what is the average p^a^rie level. They 
are located near the southeast corner of th^ 
quarter-section which has roads on both its ewt 
and south sides with the school house of district 
59 close to the road corner. 

Frank McNelly was the fourth of boys of the 
community of American parentage who was in 
the service in France. He reached home April 1, 
1919- Irving, another son of W. E. McNelly, en- 
listed in the aviation corps but did not getacrosa 
the ocean as the others chanced to do. 

Wtn. E. McNelly was born oo hi« father'i fix-*! farm m 
Section 36, Wilniingion township, December 20, l8|7 *n<* 
was seren year* of age at Ihe time that *»'« father in*ved to 
his present location. 

Married first on October 19, 1879. Samaotha Wright. S}m 
was born June 14, 1557, and died February 9, 1*90. 

Married second, June 3, 1891, Je?Rie Ratclil?« of Wo«i»* 
Ho^pe, Iowa river, bora Jnly 21, 1867. 



% PORTLAND P&AIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 



Cbildreo hj firtt irife:| 

WtUiaiQ 0,t bortt Jane 4, t88i. 

Ch«ft«r LeRoy, bora Junie la, 1883. 

MaryiBlUt bora Septetnber 2t, 1885. 

ChiTrlet K., born July 31, 1888. 
Chtldreik by tecbad wife: 

fttLbk^ born April 5, 1893. 

tiviog, born October ii, 1893. 



OTTO H. PREUCHTK. 

SBCTiON;Thirty*one» Winnebago township, wm 
originally entered as government land by one 
person with the exception of two forties adjoin- 
ing the Lansing road which were among the land 
entries made by Asa Sherman and David Salis- 
bury. The owner of most of the section who was 
a hon resident, divided up his large purchase into 
eighty-acre tracts and sold them in that form, or 
mainly so, to different purchasers. The changes 
in ownership of these lands since the fifties have 
been numerous. The section if strongly roHUig 
in consequence of being inters* cted by a deep 
syncline or upper part of the Archie Creek ravioe 
and a few minor branchlets of the same. 

Probably among the second purchasers of the 
section was Henry Kohlmeier who owued the 
most northwestern eighty of the section in the 
time of the Civil war (p. 20). After the war. his 
adopted son, Henry Plegg-Kohlroeier, lived m 
the place until into the nineties and added to it 



dOMK »>F THE PRAIKIE FARMS 97 

the part of the one mile strip in Section 36, WiU 
^uni?ton, adjoining the eighty, and which Ilea 
between the Winnebago W iln irgtcn township 
line and the Dorchester road, the jait acquired 
by H. F. Kohlmeier comprising forty acres, once 
the Nelson Smith farm and later owned by the 
elder August Guhl. Otto Freuchte came on the 
place in November, 1896, Kohlmeier having sold 
to him and moved away. Kohlmeier died in 
Missouri about the year 1910. 

The original house on the place was built about 
1S60. The present house stands back from the 
Lansing road some distance en a rise of ground 
between two syncline hollows. Main part 18 by 
13 feet; ell 18 by 16 feet, and a kitchen part 20 by 
12 feet. The barn was built by H. F. Kohlmeier 
lind measures 60 by 40 feet. The well has a depth 
of about 290 feet. The premises has its addition- 
al buildings, trees and shrubbery. 

Otto H. Freuchte, a ion of one of )he early fettlcri of 
Portland Prairie, was born May 34, 186S. Married EnUj, 
fifth daughter of Frederick Thies, February 18, 189a. Ska 
was born on the Frank Thies farm, April 23, 1870. 
Children: 

Frances, born December 13, 1892. 

Herbert, born June 22, 1897. 

Edwin, born November 5, 1900. 

Lnia, bora July 30, 1903. 

Raymond, bora January 3, 191 1. 



P-ORTLAND T'RJki&RfE *m T^KSBNT TIME8 



ALBERT BU'NUK. 

WB shall now pass to the north of the last 
mentioned place about 2} miles and take 
note of several farms that border the Winnebago* 
Wilmington township line road, and along that 
portion of it not forming the main traveled road 
of the prairie community. The farms hitherto 
sketched lie adjacent to the main road. 

The farm of Albert Bunge is situated on both 
nidea of the township line, the portion in Winne- 
baj?o comprising 69 acres in the northwest part 
(*f Section 18, and lying -north otf the road that 
turns from the township Hnf near his building* 
and runs down a ravine into the Winnebago vaK 
l^y. This part of the farm 'belongs to the ridge- 
and-ravine district borderirg the oripinal open 
prairie land and the tract itself was once more 
or less timbered. The main part of the farm, 
compriafng 140 acres, takes in the most of the 
northeast 'quarter of Section 13, Wilmington, the 
farm buildings being locjit* d on tVe esst side of 
this body of land near the road. The north part 
of this tract also came within the limits of the 
timbered ridges and ravines. 

Our historical notes concerning the farm are 
rather scanty, since we have no acccFS'to county 
land records, and what we car give only appliet 
to that part of the farm in Wilmington township. 



lAOIfS OP THE PRAIKIE FARMS 99 

Back in the sixties the land around where the 
farm buildings are located was owned by Peter 
Hanson who lived in a lo^ hou^^e Vvhere the pres- 
ent farm premises now are. In those times this 
pkti of the farm was considerably wooded with 
poplar and oak timber. There were twenty acres 
pfT the south end of the east eighty of the part in 
v/ilmington that belonged to a Norwegian named 
B^arna Nelson and was a portion of his sixty-acre 
farm. He lived in a cabin-like house near the 
rt>ad, and on the forty next south of A. Bunge's 
farm, the forty in question being now owned by 
^m, F. Deters. When wheat-raising failed the 
two parties mentioned were still on their farm«, 
but later on the land was acquired by Christopher 
liunge of Eitzen. 

The house on the present farm premises ia one 
of the finer class in the community, built iti 1916, 
and measures 87 by 36 feet, nearly of the square 
form, two stories and an attic high. A larf* 
red gambrel-roofed barn on the place meaaore* 
90 by 36 feet, with a silo on its north side. AmoQ0 
the buildings is a smaller barn and also a loQg 
building sheathed outside with galvanized Ah«^t 
iron. The well has a depth of about 270 f€«l. 

AU>ert Bunge was born at Eitxea, Maf 30. 1878. Ris 
father, Christopher BuDge, opened « store there !o )8^7* ^^ 
first building used being the vacated iog bouie ol » WHtUjli 
family. Albert Bunge maraied Matilda Det«ri, ft dtftgbler 
of Geo. DelerH, October 16, 1907. She was born at KitiM^ 
August 29, 1S81. 



100 PORTLAND PRAIRIfi IN PRESfiNT TIMES 

<JhildTea: 

Paal, boro December 7, 1908. 
Aana. bora December 10, 1910. 
LorAb, bora Novetaber it, 191a. 
Norma, bora April 6, 1^15. 
Wilxaa, bora Oclober 19, t^ij. 



CARL HANSON, 

This farm borders the to\<vnshtp line road some 
three-quarters of a mile in Section 18, Winne* 
h&go township, the main body of the farm com* 
prising the southwest quarter of the section, to 
which is attached 28 acres next north of the 
fiorthwest forty of thequarter. The several farm 
building's on the place are located near the south- 
west corner of the tract, which originally was 
mostly tree and brush land. While the west 
eighty of the quarter-section was mainly prairie 
land and nearly level, the east eighty slopss to- 
ward branches of the Deters ravine and originally 
partook of the brushy character of land adjacent 
to the ravines, not of the nature of prairie. 

Some reference to the Harson brothers has b<*en 
made on pai?e 1:5. CbiI srci Mfrtin Hanson are 
sons of Frederick Hr^nson who died March 31, 
1911. They live in a fair sort of house, dimen- 
sions 24 by 16 feet and ell part of about thesam^ 
size. The most consricncvs building on the 
premises is a large red barn with gtlvani^ediroB 
Toof, the dimensions of which are 80 by 32 feet. 
Depth of drilled well on the place about 300 fe«t. 



:#Olltf Oir THE FEA2MIB FARMS 10^ 



WILLIAM F. DKrERS. 

Thb farm of WiUiam F. Deters comprises four 
separate tracts of land, located as follows: The 
liome tract in the southeast corner of which the 
farm buildings stand, or 90 acres in thesoutheast 
<]uarter of Section 13, >^ilmirjjton. borderina: 
the township line road; the forn er Ingvaldson 
place, 120 acres, in the north part of the same 
aection and lying next west of Albert Bunge's 
place; what was originally the Pease eighty in 
the northwest part of Section 19, Winnebago, 
ami lastly a forty farther east in the same section 
and in the ridge-and-ravine district. Barring 
Mxe township Une road, the former Pease eighty 
would corner on the home place near the farm 
buildings. Attached to the southeast corner of 
the Ingvaldson tract are five other acres off from 
the A. Bunge place accord ir.g to what otherwise 
would be regular farm lines. 

Our historical notes srd references to the ley 
of the land can only apply generally to the home 
place and the cnmering eighty mentioned. In the 
spring of 1865 the whole of the southeast quarter 
of Section 13 lay untouched by the plow and waa 
not fenced where it bordered the road. The eaat 
eighty was owned by a non-resident of whom 
Searns Nelson and Horace Arnold purchased it 
about 1867. Nelson kept the north forty, but 
H. Arnold soon turned the soUtfe forty over to 
his brother, Ellery C. Arnold, so that we doubt 



1D2 POHTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRKSEKT TIMES 

wh<*ther the name of Horace Arnold appears on 
the records as en internicdifiry posscesor of the 
forty. In 1867 E. C. Arnold had a small hoii«e 
moved to the forty from the east aide of what is 
now the Watson farm, fenced alon^ the road aa4 
b«i?an breakini? the land. In 1873 a body paitt 
was added to the house and about that time tea 
acres were bought off the Ole Moen eighty next 
west, makingr the place a fifty acre farm. In the 
spring of 1882 the place was sold to a man named 
Carl Busitzke, probably a German Pole, the pre- 
vious owner having emigrated to North DakolA 
in the spring of 1880. 

In 1893 H. W. Pease sold his eighty, toi?*»ther 
with a detached forty a half mile farther east, to 
ftusitzke, and moved to South Dakota. This gave 
him 170 acres of land. The Seams Kelson forty 
was at that time owned by C Bunge. In 1903 
Bufiitzke sold out to Wm. F. Deters, who then or 
later also bought the once S. Nelson forty. The 
iogvaldson farm was purchi j-eci early in 1919. 

,The home 90*acre tract is moderately roUinp, 
a few synclirfs canyi' P du iraje waters lo thie 
ravine north of l^tvcjt Holtt i'f ylact {p. 71) tOkd 
to a less extent to the ravine down which the 
township line road turns near A. Bungc'a place. 
The former Pea«t eighty if creased rather deeply 
thru the midst of it by a syncline lectitg fouth- 
^ait; which is a branch of the Deters ravit*; then 
the south part of the eighty is hollotved by the 
tipper part of the Deters ravine, once called tbt 



Mmn OF THK FRAIRIR FARMS \0Z 

FeaM; rftvine. On the north side is something of 
uhllS with a few ledges in vkw in its base, but 
qA the south side the siope Is gradual and is 
covered by part of the forest sometimes referred 
tc in these sketches, though several acres of the 
timber in the southeast part of the eighty have 
recently been eleared off. The eighty is separat- 
ed from the Watson farm by the townline road. 

The W. F. Deters place is a stock farm, th^ 
owner of which gives considerable attention to 
raising hogs and cattle. From the time that the 
place was tirst occupied, the farm buildings have 
bt^cn located on a level area of ground about the 
southeast corner of Section 18, Wilmington. The 
pf<??ent on?i are enclosed on the north and west 
sides of the farm premises by ro%B of pines. 
The house is one the first class ones of the com- 
munity, two stories and an attic high, veneered 
with brick. It was built in 1915, and its interior 
arrangement was carefully planned by the owner, 
all nooks being utilized to some useful purpose. 
The ground nUn .li mention ia 36 feet square with 
eight feet projection for porch and balcony. It i§ 
provided with a concrete eompBrtment basement 
in which there is a gasoline engine to opetBt^ • 
churn, washing-machine and pump water iotoao 
air-pressure tank to force it to rooms above; on 
the whole a conveniently arranged residence. 

The most prominent of several outbuildings if 
a large red barn of the usual style of ccnf tructioc 
with a silo attached on the west side and well and 



104 PORTLAND PftAIhIt: IxN PRESENT^' TIMES 



windmill and tank near by. The barn measures 
100 by 46i feet. It was ori)?inally of less length, 
^A fef»t having been added by the present owner. 
It contains a modern barn equipment to move 
ft?ed to the stalls and dispose of litter, and alsb 
hsLS facilities for watering the stock inside. The 
well has a depth of 307 feet with 18 feet of water. 
When the new house was built the former one 
was moved east to the detached forty that has 
been mentioned; but the old Pease house is one 
of the farm buildings, having been moved from 
the summit of the hill above the Deters ravine 
and near the road, by Busitzke after he bought 
the Pease farm. The north part as it now 8tan<is 
to store things in, was the original house, the 
south part having been added to it in the later 
sixties. Some attention is given to ornameDtal 
shrubbery on the premises. 

William F. Deters was born near Ehzen, Attgnpt 3, 1 875. 
His father, Henry Deters, was an early settler o! ibe co«- 
munity; he came from DuPagc County, 111., in lSS5» •<** 
located a mile southwest of Eitren, across the Iowa|state U<«. 
He died April 4. foii. William F. Deters mamed Hmwem- 
ber 18, 1903, Anna, oldest daughter of Cbristopbe? ^»gfc. 
She was born at Fitien, December 13, 1874. 

Children: 

Martin, born February 15, 1906. 
John, born November «o, 1907. 
Ruth, born May lo, I9««. 
Martha, born October 31, 1916. 



{|&af£ OJ? THK FRAiaiE FARMS 106 



THE LAPHAM FARM. 



What may be called the old home place, that ia^ 
the one-hundred acre tract bordering the town- 
ehip line road in Section 19. Winnebago, has re- 
mained in the family line since its purchase in 
the year 1856. The place was deeded to Leyi L. 
Lapham by one, Joseph A. Richardsoa of yx- 
bridge, Worcester County, Mass., June 9, 1S56. 
Hichardson possibly entered the land direct ffom 
the government, and likely the entry included 
that part of the Wiebke farm in the same section, 
br)th con3titutingthe southwest quarter of the 
section. The farm is an eighty extending east 
and west with twenty acres ^djoirirg off the 
eighty next south. Mr. Lapham also secured aa 
eighty next east of the former Fease eighty, but 
being contiguous to the ravines, it was covered 
with grass, bru^h and scatteiec trrf s, the south 
part being cut by the Deters ravine. Noattempt 
was made to fence and break its north forty, the 
best portion of it, until about 1870. 

Some reference to Lapham's coming to tke 
home place from Iowa in I860 has been mad« oh 
iJ-age 26. The house in which the family Uved 
"during the fonovsing stvenieiryears waB a Bmali 
^framed one and stood near the road eight or ten 
rods to the northwest of the present rcsidf^ncf, 
with the edge of the timber on the hill elope a 
few rods north of it. In 1866 Lapham put t<p a 
large, but light framed barn, which stood on the 



10^ ^OR^ANU PRAIKIE IN PRE3ENT TIMES 



site of the predent barn. The two-«tory. brick 
haute on the place, in the form of a Maltese 
cross, was built in the fall of 1877,^ most of the 
brick used having been made two years previous* 
ly in the vicinity of the Ross spring, rear JN«.w 
A^bin. East and west the house measures about 
6$ fe«t, and centrally, north and south, about di 
feet, the eastern and western projections beiuff 
twenty feet in width. 

The main body of the barn meafures 70 by 84 
feet, and has an ell addition projecting west 
which measures 40 by 34 feet. The barn premises 
have a silo and a few other farm buildings* The 
Weil, drilled in 1906, has a depth of 303 feet with 
a dozen feet of standing water in its bottom* - 
• The home place occupies a position where, the 
level-like ridj?e between the Deters and Wiebjie 
ravines merges with the original prairie l^nd. 
The farm lines on the north and south sides^ do 
not reach to the bottom of either ravine, the slppe 
pti the north side having the longer descent with- 
in farm bounds, this long and gradual land slenl 
being well timbered by part of a forest tract, ,. 
^» Mr. and Mrs. Lapham had f our childreft, Fr$o- 
ces P;, Gora, Gpofge and Herbert. Mrt» li*pl#D 
died April 24, 1911 and L. L. Lapham Jtnt^i/n^i, 
\^U, the estate being divided among the children. 
Hiss Frances P. has managed the heir e piece of 
latpj, besides being cbiinected with educational 
work in various parts of the state. 



^Um OV THE J'KAlftIK FARMS 107 



MEKMAS SCKOH— WiLLlAM TRAMME. 

ALONG the West or Duck Creek ravine road. 
—This road comes up from tlie Duck Creek 
f A vine and passes noiil vfu. to the top of the 
Wilmini^ton ridge, thence turning west^^sro it 
pfaijaes he ridge farms of Arthur Dier3on an<i 
€arl Irehus- paits of the divided up Arnold. 
Slona farm of former times. Between parte of 
the fnrrns of Herman Schoh and Chr. Stigen ih^ 
T99.d turn.s\vest about forty rods, thence gain* 
the Tid«:o top by passing north-by-"^ est \jp the 
ttiit SI U' of a short spur of the ridge- At th# 
tirst Corner made by thip jog, the weet road *• 
Iat3f:5'j.et 'd bv a '^ros-ii-road which di verges frO» 
the Caledonl.^ r >\{ nt the poiat where the latter 
has "papst d thiu Wm. Wiegrcfc'S farm. Tb^ 
c)?o3S'road has a length of thu <- quf tter» ct B 
isaile and on the south border ui' Bramme'e farim 
it makes -i iip into the lessering part of the Dack 
Creek r?iv'r.r. Some further particuh-isccRcert' 
ing the west ropd ^^^■■^■<^ 1 cf-n pi' oi en page '27, 
The'farn's vf F J^^h^h rtV V r . Bramme will 
partially ix-coi f if t ifr togt^ther, uirre crigirjiHt 
they were parT-- -f a single ff.rm that included 
fllso a forty nc^ owned by Mrs. Haer. 

It is probable tbfit Silas C. Perry fr=fide the 
original entry or the entire quarter pertion ic 
Which the two farms are situated* for the land 
entries in the fifties generally, Itt net aiwByf 



108 POKTIAND FJttAittlB IN PRESENT TIMES 

mMce made in that way. In that case, the forty 
mentioned as belonging to Mrs. Bti&r srd the 
Watson fortj next east of it, whl included in 
thifiland purchase. More than that, Perry also 
appears to have owned part of the Arnold Stone 
4"%rm as may be inferred from the fact that the 
original lo£ cabin and a granary belorgirg to 
the piace were located in Section 23. 

Benjamin Robbins and Joel S. Yeaton in bu«- 
oi*«aion owned the rather large farm before the 
close of the Civil war (p. 28), but in the fall of 
1869 the last named possessor pold it to Corneliua 
Metcalf Jr.. and moved to Nebraska. Metcalf 
built the house now on the h. Scich farir, in 
^875, but it waa not finished ingi<i4' and occupied 
until about 1878, the owner and his family mean- 
while continuing in the old dwelling on the farm 
premises. In 1897 Metcalf built the large batii 
east of the house, both located in the foot cflh« 
ridge 80 as to provide baserrerts?. Mr. Metcalf 
died January 28, 1899, after which the large farm 
was divided between three difTf rr ct owrrif . 

Herman Schoh vaf* borr in 1871. Hia father, 
Bernhard Schoh. came frrm Chicago about 1868 
lind located on the ridge next east of theLapham 
farm, being the first occupant to reside on the 
ridge. Herme.n Schoh married Augusta Bur- 
mester; they have no children and family dates 
concerning such particulars are here lacking. 

The farm as now constituted consists of 76 
*cre« in Sectiou 24, extending fron the crose- 



aOME OF THB fBAlBIB FARMS 109 



road mentioned, thence over the ridge north to 

the Haar farm, and includes a f n all tract off the 

wuthernmost forty of that farir; also a 29-acre 

tract in Section 23, between the road\where it 

goes up the side of the spur ridge and thesection 

line of 23-24. The ridge adds an elevated topo, 

graphic feature to the north P"* ?*J*'« f"™ 
and otherwise south of it the ground 18 but ahght- 

ly rolling, draining down Duck Creek ravine. 

The house was built in the slope of the baseot 
the ridge so as to provide a basement beneath it. 
The body part measures 28 by 24 feet with an eU 
part projecting west 24 by 16 feet. The barn « 
about one hundred feet in length by 30 feet wide 
and was built in 1897. K well was put down to 
the south of the house sometime in *« »'^^^ 
seventies. The premises are protected from 
cold winds by hillsides both north and west' t^* 
latter being covered by an oak P^°;'«- '■^''* P'"J* 
have been set out on the slope north of the hous*. 



THE farm of Wllli..mBramme '•°'"P"^*'%**'3 
part of v.»,.t was eallod the "Con Metcalf pla^ 
Lfore division and in the tm,e ^i M^Jorj^^ 
owner The imrt now in question consists of 86 
wres lying between H. Schoh's ffrm w.st ar.d 
twof G L.;Watsonand Wm. ^-f -^^^""^"^ 
it The farm borders the cross-road south and 
extends over the ridge to its north slope and base 
cornering there on the ^^ledonu road^ Th^ 
part of the Wilmington ridge within th« fcrui 



limits is mostly lower and narrowet than it is on 
the Schoh farm. The dralnare of the land south 
of tKe rids« la to the Duck Creek ravine whieh 
fades otit in synclibe shallow braoehlets oo tlita 
attd the Schoh places. 

The farm was first owned after the division by 
Oeo. C. H. Meyer who resides in Section 36, The 
present owner came on the place about 1906. 
The farm buildlnirs are located in a small embay* 
ment on the south sida of th« ridfre. The houae 
ift somewhat large, two story, with a gable in tba 
roof of the center of the ^astfront. The dimea^ 
aidas of the house are 44 by 24 feet. There are 
two barns and a few other buildings on the pla^. 

The weU is located in the side of part of the 
ridge so that house and harns can be supplied 
with water from a cistern ccrsiderably highet 
than their ground floors. At 6m the weH waa 
grilled to 266 feet, but the supply of water noi 
being satisfactory, it was put down to a depth of 
920 feet. Thij. the owner stated, gives about 
•eventy feet of sundlng water in its bottom* 
Some pines were tf't out a dozen years ago ois 
the slope above the houfe, but they have o#vet 
done well, owinir. perhaps* to receiving the d^ 
rect raya of the sun on a southern slant oi tHe 
ground, and the sandy nature of the aoiU 

Westward from the house a projecting part of 
the ridge forms a clifT of sandstone i evera) rode 
in length, its highest part measuring about IS 
feet. Initials and dates are cut in tiMi reck* 



JO«S or THE ftfUIftlE FARM8 111 



CMRISTOl>HKR 8T1GKN. 

Thk farm of Christopher Stigcn consiste of two 
iurties in sections 23 aiuJ 24, separated apart by 
the wcat road, while the north side of the eaat 
toTty borders the cross-toad that has been n^tt" 
tioned. Besides the two forties, the owner also 
hi4 I tvaity-acre tract upon the ridge, part of 
ch^ former A. Stone farm. Hie east forty of the 
t^xm is moderately roUinfr, beirg cotirred thru 
hy the upper part of the Duck Creek ravine, bat 
there it is of moderate depth. The west forty la 
^ore level. It contains a conical hili that ia 
several rods wide thru tha base, the farm buSl^- 
ingi being located on its east and south side* 
Adjacent to the road. 

After Marcy and his son <pp. 28-29) left the 
place in the late sixties, it was sold to Frank Healy 
who married the oldest daughter of H.W.Ptaae. 
In 1876 he built a granary near the road side witb 
a basement tor a stable under it. This building 
the present owner has length^'ncd at its acmtbeivd, 
Healy continued on the place until the caiJy 
/pightiea when he ROved to i^outh Dakota» Geo. 
M. Watson rf-nting the place which latar $^U>sm 
he bought. It was deeded to him MarcbS, XtH- 
Christopher Stigen had been t^orkicg ca th« 
Watson farm several seasouK; the Bealy placavaa 
next sold to him and he took possession In USB. 

Th^ present owner has built a baru aa4 ftauV 
^tan^Jal hovse on tl^a pliice. The boiiee atattda 



i . c PORTLAND i^li/vlRIS- IN PREaENT TIME8 

south of the mound-like hiil irentioned where the 
cabin of Marcy onco stood, which Healy and wife 
also occupied when they lived on the farm. The 
house ii« two BtorifB hi^h and has an east and 
west lenfiTth of 66 fe^t, with gabled projections 
on itB south front. Th<? barn stands near the 
road north of the one Healy built and measurei 
56 by 26 feet. The well has a depth of 308 feet 
and the owner stated that it contains about one 
hundred feet standing water. This is an unusual 
rise of water for the drilled wells of the commu- 
nity, but proximity to elevated ridges north and 
^S3t of the locality may account for it. On the 
West side of the mound there are rows of pine» 
which have a vigorous growth. 

ChrisJophrr Si g-n was born iu the province of Hanovftr^ 
Geru.«n>. in i.SYii, »nd c«nic to thm cruniry in i88l. He 
married Mat < ha Schoh, » sister ef Herman, fiernbard and 
C«rl Schob, who vas born in 1864. The chidrcn were all 
born on the home place, namely, Martha, born May 3, 1^90^ 
Anna, born Ma» 23. 1893; Bertha, k>otn April ao, 190© 



GEO. H MKYFK. 

Eighty acres of ti.is farm is located in Section 25 
and a forty north in Section 24 has Stigen's erfst 
forty on the west, Frank Thies' farm east, while 
its north side borders on the cross road. The 
east part of the eighty as well as the forty, are 
cut to a moderate depth by the upper part of 
the Duck Creek ravine which in part spreads in 
a broad syncline, especially on the forty, rather 



aoUE OF THU IPVJklRlE FAKMS 113 

t^an forminir »t€ep-sjded «lop€i. Otb€rwi8e Ui« 
farm does not have any very uneven surface. 

Concerning the earliest hittory cf the place «« 
are without information. In the time of the 
Civil war and long afterwarde, the eiirhty waa 
owned by Herry Kftrrcbuth who served for 
fiome tim«* in the army, ^hile the forty washe-ld 
by ]P*red Hannehyth» preauirably a brother of 
Henry. In 191S all three forties were oweed by 
the last named person. In 18?3 Wm. E. MeNeUy 
bou^fht the farm and lived on It until 1892 wheo 
he sold it to the present owr.er and moved on to 
whftt is now the Otto Deters farm. In 1908 the 
present owner built a new house and baroonth<) 
place, making use of the old dwelling aa a shop. 

The farm buildings are located about a quarter 
of a mile east from the ropd atjd near the pitcfc 
that the ground makea there into the ravine. 
The house is a eubstantial one, n'ain part 80 by 
16 feet, with four rooms above and below; alio 
a basement; two wings ea«h IS by 16 feet» all 16 
feet posted, and an addition PO by 16 feet Th* 
barn meagur^p 70 by t2 feet bfing IB feet posted. 
the well has a depth of 2BZ t^^t.l 

The prairie farms are usvalb fi rc^dalo&gtbe 
roads and property lines and divided into fielda 
by barbed wire strung on oak pests. Mr. Meyer 
has largely used concrete postE, moulded on his 
premises, and strengthened with wire- They 
measure 6) inches square at the bottrm and taper 
fto three inches at the top. 



114 POHTL4ND PRAIRIB IN PRESENT TIMES 

- -*»»'-• 

-Geo^ H. Meyer was born in Haoover, Germanj, October 

95, 1364. He married Minnie Brinker February it, itn^i, 

bl*e wad bora March S9, 1866. /* t.> 

Childrea: t r. ^jju h 

'Emma, bora December 18, 1891* . . 1 ♦ 

J?earl» born November 24, 1 893. * . ♦ . 
Ktsie, born June 22, 1897. 

vLftwin, born February 25, 1901. ' • ,* 

il^tjfv, born M«rch 8, 1904, ... 
' Aloert,. born Jone 3, 1908. 



» GUSTAV MEITRODT. ,s 

Tms farm conBists of an eighty in the northfast 
p^rt of Section 26. It extends east and west, ite 
east end bordering the west road. Besides the 
home place the owner has fifty acres that once 
belonged to the south part of the Arnold Stone 
tf^fjn. At a few intervals north of Section 36^, 
t^>e Dpck Creek ravine throws off toward the 
Westjbranchlets or drainage hollows, betweeii 
which the land forms broad swells, but the hoi- 
lows lessen in df^pth and fade out along a south- 
erly extending v oodrd ?rrr ci the Wilmington 
ridg^. - The iny of the farm is in some measure 
influenced by tV^^se congiderstione, but not as 
much so as fonr other farmsteads farther south 
along the road, where both the ravine and ita 
branches increases in depth. 

About thf? yesr 1J?61. Frederick MeJtrodt, 
father of Guptav Meitrodti rvTch/»ftd the furm 
of a man named William Voight. Some mentiom 



SOME OF ll-iii; i^-«Ain5E FARMS 115 



of Frederick Mettrodl and children ha? been 
jnade on page 29. As is now usually the case 
with Portland Prairie farms, the place has its 
f roup of farm buildings, though generally ia 
these farm sketches only the residences and the 
large red barns have been specially mentioned, 
together with the depth of drilled wells where 
the f.j^ures could be obtained from owners. The 
farm buildings are located at the east efhd of the 
eighty near the road. The house is a suhstakitial 
&ixteen>feet posted dwelling, the dimensions of 
tiie main part being 28 by 18 feet, with an ell 
pftrt 20 by 16 feet. The barn was built some fifty 
y«ar^ ago by the father of the present owner 
and measures 68 by 28 feet. The well has a deptk 
of 236 feet, contains about forty feet itanding 
water and the windmill is supplemented by a 
gasoline engine. 

Some of the Portland Prairie farms hare been 
given chosen names which are registered at th« 
county seat. Mr. Meitrodt calls his plae« the 
Royville Farm. 

GmtUT Meitrodt, on« of two tvia bfotberf, vm Wr* oai 
tbe farm he now occupies, NoTcmber lo, lfl6t. Ko mnm94 
i* 1S99 Aai^usta Kanscmberger who wm bof a oeof 
ter, Jttlf 6, 1876. 

Chiidrea: 

Ida, bora Janaary Ji, ifoo. 
Rpy, bora Jaoe M, 1904. 
Martba. bora Jalf 7. 19>* 
Aaaa, bora May si, 1911. 



M.6 rORTLAKD PRAIRCIk; tt^ FRBSENff tIMSS 



BERNHAKD SCHOH. ' • 

The topography or surface features of the last 
four fartns of which any note will be taken ia 
more or less influenced by proxin^ity to the 
upper portion of the Duck Creek ravine. The 
ravine has two moderate sized branches extend* 
injj northeast until they fade away on the Alfred 
Deterft and Wm. Wiegrefe farms, respectively. 
Then on its west side are the syneline branches 
referred to in the precediBjr lam. t'ketch. lYe 
road keeps to the west and above the main ravine, 
ac.?a3ionaUy dipping into the hollows mentioned, 
i^ati! Otto Deters farm i^ reached, where it de- 
scends into the main ravine. There is a concrete 
«;oAd bridge across one of the hollows some rods 
' fiartheastof Schoh^sfaim buildings. 

The farm of Bernbard Schoh comprises an 
^eij?'h(y in the east part of Section 26, next south 
of that of G. Meitrodt; also two forties across 
^hp rnad in Section 2^ the second one being next 
.south of the.fir.9t »nd east of Theo. Thiele'sfarm. 
The-.eijfh.ty biiiUvrat fortT n ike 110 celt's lined 
.east and west. Ihe Ity of tb* t\\o forties is 
ijendered uneven by slopirj? into the Duck Creek 
ravfne and by two branchUts cf the same, the 
latter also influencing the surface of tbe eighty. 

The farm in whole or in part was land that 
Esten Olson owned back in the sixties. In. the 
seventies Ole E. Olsjjraard Jr, owned at 1«Mt the 
first forty and two others south of It; then later 



l50liE OF THE FRAIMir: FAPMS •. ' 117, 



in the century a man named Jacob EvensoD wan 
"' a possession of Ihe three foiues. 
-The farm buildingfs are located on- the weit 
Me of the road upon one of thesutnmitfi'between 
hollows that hfive been referred to. Thcie is m 
^ood house on the place built in 15)02, with "the 
wipj;rs or additions now con men to the farzns 
j»f the prairie, but rather sadly lacking in the old 
♦lays of the commvnity. The n^aih part meas- 
ures 22 by 16 feet; kitchen part 16 feet square, 
and an addition to the house 16 by 14 feet, the 
iimensions of the barn are 66, by 32 feet. There 
iValso a hopr-house on the premiees 50 by 24 feet 
f^Mls sheathed outside with galvanized sheet 
iro^n. The well has a depth of 280 feet, contain- 
inisr «a much as fifty feet of standing water. 
Pi«e8 are growing in front of the house; 
' *Bernhard Schoh is a brother of Herman an4 
Carl Schoh (the latter lives at the old home place 
next east of the Laphpm iiMii) «rd ^i.fboin 
September iJ, 18»^9, He ^married, June 6, 1896. 
Anna Schultz who resided on ^he New Albin ridge. 
Mrs. Schoh was born Novenber 19, 1876. They 
have one son, Alvin, born September 27. 1898. 

THEODORE THIELE. 

After the remarks that have been made in th« 
last two sketches in relation to the lay of the land 
on either side of the Duck Creek ravine road, 
jnothing further in regard to details of that kind 



118 PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMES 

l^eeds to be added in the present instance, since 
the farm now under consideiatidi lies on the 
wmt side of the road. It is an eighty ne3tt Bouth 
ot Bernhard Schoh'e eij?hty and located in the 
east part of Section 26. 

The farm pr^TiUis of Theo. Thiele are situate'd 
>vhere Esten Olson once lived, also Ole Olsgsarid 
at a later period; then next, Ole B. Olsgaard Jr. 
The last two were distinguished by way of refer- 
eace as **Big Ole" and "Little Ole." The former 
emigrated to North takotfi. The latter sold 
the eighty to Theo. Thiele in 1908. The farm 
b'aildingsare situated near the road, in the east 
end of the eighty, and upon cr e of those sweUs 
{)t the surface previously referred to. The house 
is one of the substantial frtn td kind and waa 
built in 1902. The main rart n casures 26 by 18 
/eet; east addition 16 by 14 feet and a west addi- 
tion 18 by 12 feet. The barn ^f ts upon one of 
the usual stone- walled bapew ents now quite 
common to the large red b»rr.s of the prairie 
community and measures M> by 30 ftet. The 
well is 250 feet deep. The F.monrit of water in 
wells along the west road is unusually large, but 
we do not have the figures in thia instance. 

Theodore Thiele is a fonof DiedrichThieljJ&uA 
was born May 2, 1880. He married on June 17, 
1909 trouisa Ranzemberger, a sister of Mrs. Meit- 
rodt. Mrs. Thiele was born May 23, 1885. They 
^are one son. Benjamin, born Sept. W, 1.910. 



Mmm OF THE FttAiHIE FARMS lift 



OTTO DETERS. 

The farm tf Otto Deters compi if es adjoining 
^ract^ of land located in three different sectiont 
iff Wilmington township, rtmely, 26, 26 and S6. 
'lh?re ar« 26 acres in the first nrentitrc(i tec* 
lion, 40 in the second, (its most southeasterzf 
Iv^rty;. and 75 in the last. Being so far down the 
Duck Creek ravine, yet still in the aeighborhood 
of its upper portion, the lay of the farm is ther^ 
by rendered somewhat uneven. 

So far a3 aay of the land is located in Section 
:i5 it is included in the originalentry of theeotith 
half of that section made by Dr. Batcheller in 
1854 (p. 21). In the sixties James Vreeland w^b 
on theplflcf, liYiiig where the builoirps are sit- 
\»ated on the east side of the forty mentioned. 
He moved to Lansing, Esten Olson being the next 
own^T, in 1893 Wm. E. McNelly came oo th« 
place, having bought it of Ole E. Olagaard. 
Early in V)i\\) he sold it to the present owner, the 
consideraticn beinp $15,000 

The house and oiher huildirpF stard on one of 
the'eminencvis m^»ritioned. rrotctted Vy an oak 
grove. The dnrneions of the howse are 26 ty 
14 feet with an ell part. The barn mewtire* 
12 by 20 feet, and the well has a depth of 236 ft. 

Otto Deters married Emma Meyer, a daughter 
of Geo. C. H. Meyer. They have no children 
•nd we have no dates in relation to them as we 
liad no opportunity to call at the farm. 



120 PORTEAND FRAIRIE IN PRESENT TIMEfS 



AUGUST WIEGREFE. 

l-Hti fftrm of August Wiegrefe compriies 120 
&cre« in Section 25, in part text west of the 
qaarter-sectton owned ly ^ . E. McKellj ; fileo a 
email tract bordering on the Duck Creek ravine 
road, which at that point makes a detour eatt 
away from, the section iice of i:6-26 into the ra- 
vine*. The main part of the farm consists of 
three forties lined north and south, the north 
forty being: in the north half of the section. 
Owinj? to proximity to the Duck Creek ravine, 
the Uy of the land is more than merely rolling^ 
besides, ihe farm is trenched acre Fs by the ra- 
vine thjit, extends northearterly to the Alfred 
Detefs, place. The f&rm has eome oak groves. 

As. has, been said in other sketches, the south 
half of^he, section was entered by Dr. Batchellef 
who aja^utl&fjK BC)W an eighty of it to Leoiiard 
Albee vijho lived on the place until hif death in 
1893. A bafh'Was built ou the place in 1870. In 
the early eighties a hcute was built on the pTevr- 
ises for Geo. W. Mctcalf, grcncK n of L. Albee, 
whi€fi,*wi^h changes, i? the ere rrcirpied by the 
presett'tr (Jwjier^ who cisime on the place in 1903. 

Augusrt Wregefp. wvVborft at the Winnebago Va11«y, )«a- 
«ary 2I,r8j7.,. He uiaffied on March l$^ »co3, Fre4e, » 
dmnghter of Fred Detcfr, born Febr«mry 12, 1880. 

Children: Alma and Verna, twint, born Mareb B, 1905. 
Pdna, born September 21, tqio; died May 17, 19II. Rlm«, 
born June si, 1912. 



BCHOOb HOtJHftA AKV CHUKCIf 12f 

Wijr.fiRRpR School House, District 66.— This schooft 
iMitldini; w«3 bailt in the summer of 1867 bj W. R. BalIoa« 
As oiigtnaHy coostiucted it had three cempartments or entry 
ways in it« east end, the seats being arranged so that the 
pupils sat facing east. Some twenty years ago the entry» 
were taken out to enlarge the school room, a storm house 
^oilt outside and the arrangement of the seats and teacher's 
desk reversed. The building measures 28 by 20 feet. Mis» 
KUen Heaty, later the wife of Geo. Cass, was the first teach- 
er and during the winter of 1867*8 had about twenty pupils 

^cNei.ly School House, Districl 59. — The first school 
house on Portland Prairie was built at the road comers, a 
little etst of the present one, in 1858. and was a smaller sized 
bvnidmp. The first teacher was presumably Mary Ann Cook«. 
a daughter of John G. Cook. This school house was also» 
used for church services until the existing one was built. 
When it fell into disuse it was moved to the farm of Estem 
Olson, havini; served its purpose about ten y»ars. 

The existing school house was built in the early summer o# 
1868 The door near the southwest corner opened directly 
into the school room, no shelter being added until sometimo 
in the eighties. The dimensions of the building are 3a by 20 
feet. It wa< also used for church services until 1876. The 
belfrys and bells of both school houses were added to them 
some ten or n^orr yeaas ego 

The Mh Hor>isT Chitrch buildipg of the rommnnity wa« 
erected in 1S76. No preacher was assigned to the Caledonia 
circuit for one ^ra*^ and the society took that cpportonity to 
erect the church. Land for a church site and cemetery was 
given on his subscription by Geo Cass. Much work was also 
contributed by different peraons. Rev. W. M. Bowdish was 
assigned to the circuit in October, 1876, but there was tran- 
sient preaching in the building before he came. 



Portland Prairie N'kcrolo(;t Sfncs 1900. 

\ft». Eliza Albee, born August 8, 1812; died June 11, 1901^ 
Esther KobiBfiCD, bcrr Jacuarj I, 1839; died Sept. 15, 1901. 
Mrs. Kluabeth Metcalf, born Aprtl 3, 1841; d. Oct. 13, 1903^ 
£lisha Cook, born 1815; died 1904. 

Horace Arnold, born April 8, 1833; died August 21, 1904. 
Charles F. Wright, born October 7, 1831; died Jan. 6, 1907, 
Mrs. Sarah Albee, born August 8, 1825; died Aug. 21, I909. 
Frederick Hanson, died March 31, 191 1. 
Mrs Sarah Laphatr, born Ma; 28, 1834; d. April 24, 191 1. 
Joseph Winktlman. born Feb. 13, 1838; d. Oct. 19, 1912 
Henry Kobinson, born March 15, 1831; died June 26, 1913. 
Mrs. Hannah Shumwav, b. April 25, 1834; d. Nov. 30, 1913, 
Lewis Haar, born Mcrch 26, 1863; died March 26, 191$. 
Roy Thies, born March 25, 1903; died July 4, 191$. 
Levi L. Lapham, born April 11, 1829^, died Jan. 2, 1916. 
Henry Wiebke, born February 20, 184^; d. March I, 1916. 
Geo. M. Watson, born April 25, 1839; d. March I9. 1917. 
John McNelly, born March 25, 1830; died April 21, 1918. 
Frederick A. Wright, former res., born Mardt 2, 1862; d4«d 
in Chicago December i, 1918. 

(122) 



IBI-c'2^ 



